La commedia degli errori

Il caos delle liste e la sua disastrosa gestione viste da oltreoceano.

These events confirm that Burlusconi's party, the People of Liberty is on a downward slope, reaching new levels of incompetence. The party founded and built around the idea of "doing", of acting efficiently rather than just talking politics, seems to have lost its capacity to function, to perform even the most basic tasks such as registering candidates. The ruling that some have called ad paninum -- for the sandwich -- is an analogy with the many laws ad personam -- for his own person -- Berlusconi's government passed in the past few years. At the same time, the involvement of President Napolitano indicates that on his way down Mr. Berlusconi will be ready to drag with him even Italy's most fundamental institutions.

March 5th, the day the decree was signed, was also the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of Italy's wittiest writers and journalists, Ennio Flaiano. In 1956 Flaiano wrote that "The political situation in Italy is bleak, but it is not serious". His words could have not been truer today.