Italy
From anti-war to a party of war
Rifondazione Comunista mobilizes for Italy’s military intervention in Lebanon
By Marianne Arens, October 28, 2006
Rifondazione Comunista, the Italian “Party of Communist Refoundation,” is exerting all of its influence to facilitate an Italian military intervention in Lebanon. The national secretariat ...
Italy: Prodi government submits austerity budget
By Marianne Arens, October 7, 2006
On September 30, the Italian centre-left government led by Romano Prodi submitted its budget for 2007, which envisages total savings for the coming year of 33.4 billion euros. The aim of the budget is...
Italy prepares to send troops to Lebanon
By Marianne Arens, August 16, 2006
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his foreign minister, Massimo D’Alema, announced at the weekend that Italy was prepared to send several thousand soldiers as well as ships, helicopters an...
Italy’s National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe: the significance of a neo-fascist commemoration
By Marc Wells, March 9, 2006
A “foiba” (plural “foibe”) is a natural sinkhole in the shape of an inverted funnel, up to 200 meters deep, formed by water erosion. These formations are typical of the Kras re...
Italian election campaign begins with anti-Berlusconi opposition backing austerity candidate
By Peter Schwarz, February 23, 2006
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi officially launched Italy’s national election campaign when he dissolved parliament earlier this month. On April 9 and 10, voters will elect a new parliament and d...
Italy’s constitutional “reform”: the gravedigger of post-war democracy
By Marianne Arens and Marc Wells, December 2, 2005
Silvio Berlusconi’s Constitutional reform, passed by the Italian Senate on November 16, is designed to give the prime minister presidential powers. Only a few weeks before that, Berlusconi, Ital...
Italy: Berlusconi changes electoral law to remain in power
By Marianne Arens and Peter Schwarz, November 4, 2005
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is notorious for the fact that he flouts elementary democratic principles and unscrupulously uses his power to defend his own personal interests.
Why did the CIA abduct an Egyptian cleric from the streets of Milan?
By Peter Symonds, July 5, 2005
An article in last Sunday’s edition of the Chicago Tribune has raised new questions about the CIA kidnapping of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, on the streets of Milan on Febr...
Italy: a week-long government crisis in Rome
By Peter Schwarz, April 29, 2005
Things must change if we want them to stay as they are, affirms the young Tancredi in Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard). These words came to mind last week as a drama playe...
Berlusconi suffers major defeat in Italian regional elections
By Peter Schwarz, April 9, 2005
It was anticipated that Italy’s ruling right-wing coalition would suffer losses in the Italian regional elections held last weekend (April 3-4), but the result far exceeded expectations. Most co...
Italy: Rifondazione joins with Prodi
By Marianne Arens and Peter Schwarz, March 28, 2005
The sixth party congress of Rifondazione Comunista (PRC) has finally dispelled the illusion that this party in any way represents a socialist alternative to the bourgeois parties.
Berlusconi government in predicament over US shooting of Italian journalist
By Peter Symonds, March 15, 2005
The right-wing Italian government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was in trouble last week following the March 4 attack by US solders on a car carrying freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad air...
