Italians abroad
bite the hand that finally fed them democracy (Aprile 2006)
by Sandra Giovanna
Giacomazzi
In June 1996 the
citizens of Russia celebrated an exceptional event: for the first time
in
history they were able to participate in the democratic process by
electing
their president. That election was of
particular interest to Italians living abroad.
The Russian government had organized the elections worldwide so
that
even Russians living abroad were able to participate in the momentous
occasion,
an objective that Italian citizens abroad had yet to reach even after
50 years
of the Republic. During that period the
Italian president, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, happened to be visiting the
United
States. When he met with the Italian
community in New York, the latter, of course, took advantage of the
occasion to
ask the president when they would be able to vote like the Russians. The president briskly brushed off their
question, refusing categorically to address the subject, removing any
doubts
they might have had that the question of their right to vote wasn’t an
economic
problem, nor was it an organizational one, but simply a question of the
lack of
political will of those who thought they had something to lose by the
expression of their vote.
Another ten years
have passed and after a delay of democracy that had lasted for 60
years, last
week the Italian electorate abroad was finally able to vote thanks to a
law
that was promoted by Berlusconi’s center-right government.
Their gratitude was expressed in the form of
bad joke. Not only did the majority of
the Italians abroad vote for the center-left coalition, but it was
their very
votes that conceded the Senate, and therefore the government, to those
who had
always sought to impede their right to vote!
What a painful paradox indeed!
Apparently two of
the candidates abroad have admitted that they chose to choose the side
of the
winner. One made his decision
intuitively before the elections. The
other waited for the final verdict!
Evidently, in their dictionaries the word “principle” is spelt
with a
capital “O”: Opportunism!
The
fault is multi-faceted. Much of it lies
with the foreign media whose journalists come to Rome and neglect to do
their
homework, preferring to copy and paste what they’ve read in the left
wing press
the day before. However, there have also been many “irregularities”
that smack
of illegalities. For example, many
voters abroad complain of having received propaganda material for the
left
together with their electoral information and ballot, in the very same
envelope! Others have reported being
pranced upon at the voting stations by leftist political panthers,
sometimes by
the very person who handed them their ballot, dissuading them from
voting for
the center-right lest their pensions fall into peril!
Sandra
Giovanna Giacomazzi is a regular
contributor to the Roman daily, L'Opinione delle Libertà. She also teaches Government
and Economics in Turin.
giogia@giogia.com
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