fantapolitica
humorous look at Italian politics (bilingual)Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Omigod. Blogging the post debate discussion with journalists.
Emelio Fede said that the debate was just a rehersal for the second debate and that being objective he wouldn't say Prodi won. This is huge given who Fede is*. Berlusconi was so aweful that his most abject worshipper can't deny it.
I can't quite blog in front of the TV so I left to report this. I heard Fede shouting at another journalist (I think the editor of L'Unità once organ of the Italian communist party now independent). I don't know quite what he was saying but he concluded with passionate seriousness that by claiming that Prodi had won the debate and would gain support the other journalist was inviting Jella (bad luck). Now taking superstition seriously in public is considered less absurd in Italy than in the US but it is dramatic that the only basis for hope that Fede could come up with was superstition.
To me this is a declaration of total defeat for Berlusconi. Remembering my record, I am careful not to make any predictions about elections, although I am fairly confident that the Italian election will be held on schedule.
* Fede for people in partibus infedelium: Emelio Fede is anchorman of the news program of rete 4, one of Berlusconi's 3 channels. His program is, by far, the most biased in Italy vastly exceeding those on the other Berlusconi channels. The violation of the rule on equal access in 2001 is largely due to Fede putting Berlusconi's image on the air much more than his oppenents. Berlusconi defended himself saying he can't control Fede (false) who is just crazy about Berlusconi (true). I once saw Fede "interview" Berlusconi. I have never seen someone filmed from the waist up manage to appear to be on his knees. I don't want to see that again. Fede has organised demonstrations in favor of Berlusconi (lighting a candle in a window) and covered them on his "news" show.
Fede has a personal stake in the election, because the freequencies which broadcast him were assigned to another firm years ago. The Consiglio di Stato (Italies highest administrative court) has judged that mediaset (Berlusconi's company) does not have the right to use those freequencies which belong to another firm. Obviously Fede is still on the air, because the law is not applied to Berlusconi (no one can explain how it was possible to avoid applying the final decision of the highest court). Oh also the Constitutional court has judged the law which originally authorised Fede's channel to be a violation of freedom of speech which requires a plurality of news sources. This last doesn't amount to much because the Constitutional court just orders Parliament to do something about the problem, so what matters is parliaments interpretation of the courts decision that the old law passed by parliament is unconstitutional (think of Bush's approach to the constitution in which his judgement is final).
Nothing could be more surprising than the fact that the best Fede could do was claim that Prodi had not won the debate.
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