A very different Verona, though, came to light in the Italian press during the week as news broke that Nicola Tommasoli, a 29 year old, had died in intensive care, a couple of days after being savagely beaten on the streets of the city by five neo-nazis after refusing to give them a cigarette.

It's difficult to suggest that there were political motives for the murder - more likely, it seems, it was simply a case of clear-cut thuggery, a group of young men, with a history of violence behind them, acting like pack animals.

And yet the case raises serious political questions - questions that are decidedly uncomfortable for the 'law and order' party the Lega Nord, who increased their vote dramatically during the recent elections partly thanks to their promise get tough on crime.

Verona, you see, apart from being the city of Romeo and Juliet, open-air Opera, and a thriving tourist trade, is also one of the strongholds of the Lega. Current mayor, Flavio Tosi, who won the 2007 Mayoral election with over 60% of the vote, ran a campaign focussed almost entirely on 'security' issues, declaring "in this city there will be no space for those that don't want to integrate and for those who don't respect our laws".

The five youths who beat Tommasoli to death, it seems, had been given plenty of space to roam the city streets. Two of the five, Federico Perini e Nicolò Veneri, had already been involved in violent incidents and under anti-hooligan legislation were both obliged to present themselves at the local police station whenever local team Hellas Verona played. Raffaele Dalle Donne, another of those involved, was under investigation for violation of the Mancino law against incitement to racial hatred (he had, amongst other things, complained when a lecture was arranged at his school on the Holocaust).

Then again, accusations of racial hatred put Dalle Donne in good company, given that Verona's law and order Mayor Tosi himself has also, in the past, been charged with violating the Mancino law (he was cleared, although his election campaign was described as openly racist).

And as journalists delved further into the story, stories of regular beatings on the streets of Verona started coming to light - attacks on immigrants, gays, and anyone deemed 'different'. The question, reasonably, then, is what role has the ultra-right political leadership had in the growth of these attacks? At best Tosi's administration seems to have been ineffectual at stopping them, at worst there are legitimate fears that some in the administration see violence against gays, immigrants, and left-wing students as legitimate.

Tosi has, according to analysts, been spearheading a political experiment that, thus far, has reaped massive benefits, uniting a conservative ultra-catholic vote alongside the more extreme elements of the right, including neo-fascists and neo-nazis. The mayor participated in December of last year in an event organised by the Veneto Fronte Skinhead (a 'cultural' association that has promoted concerts by various neo nazi bands including No Remorse, authors of the charming song 'Final Solution'). Later, after the event, three members of Italy's air corp were threatened and attacked outside a bar in the centre of Verona, for being 'terrone' or southerners - their attackers were identified as participants in the earlier event.

In the wake, last year, of the rape and murder of a middle aged woman on the outskirts of Rome by a Romanian vagabond, emergency legislation was introduced by Romano Prodi's government to allow for mass expulsions of Romanians.

In the wake of the brutal murder of Tommasoli in Verona no emergency legislation seems necessary. Life will go on as normal, it seems, for the racist thugs who roam the streets of Verona.

City of love me arse.

Of course, Luxembourg didn't get to taste victory herself (and it's easy to argue that her brand of revolutionary socialism is still waiting), as she wound up shot and her body dumped in Berlin's Landwehr canal. It's not, thankfully, a fate facing Veltroni, or his failed PD candidate Rutelli, but the first right-wing victory in Rome in over 14 years should have some political fallout.

Rutelli, former leader of the former Margharita (daisy) party - which has now merged with the former DS to make up Veltroni's 'new' party - became the darling of the left when he defeated heavyweight post-fascist Gianfranco Fini for the job of Mayor of Rome back in 1994. Since then his major achievements have been to lose in a head-to-head with Berlusconi in 2001's general election, and to have been one of the leading figures in Prodi's lacklustre coalition that failed to win a signifacnt majority against Berlusconi in 2006, despite widespread dissatisfaction with the outgoing government.

He's also managed to get himself involved in a farcical relaunch of Italy on the global tourist market, costing millions and yielding precious few results - apart from the chuckles provided by an ill-advised ad where Rutelli pleaded, borat-style, with english speaking tourists to 'veeseet my cantry'.

In short, his last major political success was over a decade ago, and yet Veltroni's PD's saw him as a safe-bet for the hugely important Rome position. Alemanno's victory puts the final jack-booted stamp onto the prevailing notion that Italy has swung to the right. If anything, though, it's veered sharply away from a dangerously incompetent left-wing leadership.

There are various factors in Rutelli's defeat, including a highly probable abstention by serious left-wing voters still enraged by Veltroni's decision to campaign against his former left-wing coalition partners the Sinistra Arcobaleno (Greens and Comunists allied) - a decision which led to the decimation of the latter at the polls, while not preventing a Berlusconi victory. Add to that various convenient security scare stories (there were a number of hugely-reported rapes in Rome over the last ten days), which will always be to the right's advantage, and the going was always going to be tough for Rutelli.

It's hard, though, to disagree with journalist Peter Gomez's assesment that this is the best thing that could happen to the left in Italy at this moment. The vote, at the end of the day, can only be read one way: a high profile candidate hand-picked by the PD's failed to convince, despite having all the advantage. Romans didn't vote for Rutelli because they didn't like him as a candidate, plain and simple - a theory backed up by the fact that in the provincial elections the PD candidate Zingaretti won comfortably.

Now is the time for the various high-profile lefties like Rutelli, who have more than a decade's worth of a dismal record, to quietly depart the scene. A new party isn't worth a thing without new ideas and, crucially, new faces.

Over 500,000 people in one day queued up to sign a petition calling for three specific referenda to change the way information is controlled in Italy.

A brief outline of the referenda:
1) The abolition of the order of journalists - a professional body with strict entry requirements, and direct successor to the body set up by Mussolini in 1925 in order to regulate and control who is permitted to work in journalism.
2) The abolition of state subsidies to the print-press. Under current legislation a horde of Italy's daily newspapers recieve taxpayers money, supposedly to support plurality of information. In the worst case scenario this leads to party newspapers spewing official lines. At best it subsidises commercial concerns.
3) The abolition of the controversial Gasparri law regulating television communication, which amongst other things allowed for the legal broadcasting of Rete 4, Berlusconi's third channel and home to some of the strangest propoganda seen since Ceaucescu's Romania.

And the lead stories on RAI 1, the national state broadcaster for the evening of the 25th? Their first headline was that the world is facing global food shortages - a story that has been in the press for over a week at this stage. The second, the celebration of liberation day, including various declarations from politicians left, right and centre (or should that read right, right and centre-right) - an important part of the day's news admittedly, though strange that no mention was made of the fact that Berlusconi chose precisely liberation day to meet up with one of his party's self-professed fascists Ciarrapico. On and on the news went, but no mention that over a half a million Italians are sick to the teeth of piss-poor politically controlled journalism.

One would scarcely have expected TG editor Gianni Riotta to take a favourable line towards the second Vaffa day organised by Beppe Grillo, this time with journalists not politicians in its sight. That he, and the various other gatekeepers of tv journalism, chose to simply ignore the event is, though, absurd. As if word of the event and the issues involved can be neatly swept under the rug.

And the same RAI will be looking for support, proudly proclaiming its dubious public broadcasting value when it comes under attack, as it surely will, from Berlusconi's mob during the lifetime of the next parliament. This monkey, for one, will not be taking to the streets to defend it - given that all it offers in the way of public broadcasting is a different brand of reality show. Berlusconi offers Big Brother on his Canal Cinque channel, while RAI run X-factor on their frequencies.

The newspapers are scarcely much better. The Corriere della Sera had a snide piece, focussing mainly on the main demonstration in Torino, where 50,000 people gathered to hear Grillo (50,000 is scarcely a trifle, but sounds pleasingly more marginal than two million). No analysis of the proposals calling for reform, and significantly no mention of the estimated 13 million euros of taxpayers money that goes annually to its publishers the RCS group.

Yet another shameful moment for Italian journalism - and not one that can be blamed on Berluska.

Luckily for Berlusconi his new government won't take office officially until the end of the month, meaning Berluska will be free of official engagements celebrating liberation day. Actually, it makes not a blind bit of difference, given that during his various terms of office over the last fifteen years he has steadfastly ignored what is, arguably, the most important national festival.

But it's not just neo-fascists like Berluska that steer clear of the 'resistance'. After decades of cold-war politics, where apologists explained the complex and respectable nature of fascism - allowing former ministers and dedicated followers of fascim like Giorgio Almirante to participate actively in political life (to be fair to Almirante, he did accept Italian democracy - in the 1970s!!) - the 'resistance' suffered the direct opposite. A highly-complex movement, made up of comunists, anarchists, nationalists, monarchists, catholics, feminists, farmhands, and factory workers - to list just a few of the different categories - had its complexity glossed over, as it became effectively colonised by a strident left-wing which had effectively been shunted out of power in post-war Italy.

Thankfully there are some serious historians out there researching and publishing work that reflects the complexities of the period - a period in which over 40,000 Italian partisans were killed, and in which over 15,000 civilians were killed by Nazi and Italian fascist reprisals.

If you want to learn more about the Italian resistance, and the complex battle over official memory in post-war Italy, then treat yourself to Alessandro Portelli's brilliant book The order has been carried out: History, Memory and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome. Ostensibly about the infamous 'fosse ardeatine' massacre carried out by the Nazis in reprisal for a partisan attack, the book has a much larger scope examining the origins of the resistance in Rome, post-war attitudes to it, and the strange process that has culminated in the rehabilitation of fascism at the expense of the resistance freedom fighters.

In last week's election results the 'leftest' coalition, the 'Sinistra Arcobaleno' (Left Rainbow) were decimated. The party, which combined the Italian Comunist Party and the 'Rifondazione' Comunist Party along with the Green party. They were, in a very real sense the biggest losers of the election. The next parliament will be the first in Italian post-war history to have no serious left-wing representatives amongst its members.

In the best tradition of western communist parties, the auto-critique has begun, as party leaders attempt to understand why the party's progressive program was so roundly ignored by the electorate (they polled 3.08% in the lower house, and 3.2% in the Senate).

Undoubtedly the coalition also suffered from its participation in Prodi's lacklustre government of the last two years, where their radical agenda failed to get a foothold.

Other possible motives for their defeat? Lack of credibility, perhaps. A party that stressed its dedication to feminism*, and rejuvenating the Italian political system, and yet went for the easy option of choosing a veteran male candidate in the person of Fausto Bertinotti as party leader. Bertinotti before the election campaign did a 'Veltroni' denying that he would lead any new movement, given that he was too old.

Various reasons then to explain the decimation of the Italian left-wing in these elections.

Olivier Diliberto, leader of the Italian Comunist Party, in the aftermath has chosen, though, to focus on one main thing. In a curt press release, Dilly (someone for whom this monkey has generally had a lot of time) announced:

"At this point we have to start from scratch and start over with the old symbols, the hammer and sickle."

Ah yes, that will make all the difference! Leave aside the fact that for millions of people the symbol is associated with stalinist mass-murder, the question is what possible meaning can the symbol have for a 'new' left-wing in Italy. Hand either a hammer or sickle to your average twenty-year-old Italian, and you will, rightly, get a bemused look, as peasants or factory workers scarcely exist in a partially globalised twenty-first century Italy.

But what about the tradition, and identity built up over decades of hard struggle? What about it? For many the symbol which Dilly so cherishes has become a symbol of clinging onto the past impotently rather than grasping the opportunities of the future.

To paraphrase Twain, reports of the demise of the Italian left have been widely exaggerated. After all, look back to 2006 and the now-triumphant Lega Nord had a poor showing which under today's rules would have had them similarly excluded from the parliament. Instead they hold the balance of power.

The comrades need to take note of the crafty post-fascists, like il Duce's grand-daughter Alessandra Mussolini, who have happily embraced Berlusconi's new symbols (not a flame or a fasce in sight) whilst incorporating their traditional family values (nationalism, xenophobia & security).

What's needed now are new faces, the mixing of old and new ideas, and less of the bottle-fed ideologies of the past.

*In their favour, they were the party who presented the largest number of female candidates in their electoral list.

Veltroni based his campaign around the idea that his party was bringing something new to Italy, something imported from more developed countries (The US and UK - where centuries of democratic tradition, poorly lacking in Italy, have managed to produce Bush and Blair goverments. Go figure). His importation, to some, seemed a little bit like those cheap chinese imitations so loathed by the Italian luxury goods market - particularly so when he made his main campaign slogan 'si puo fare', a barely veiled lift from Obama's 'Yes we can'.

The problem, though, apart from the fact that lifted slogans and imported dogma's (to be modern, and decidedly third-way-ish you absolutely must build a nuclear reactor) highlight a singular lack of imagination, is that Veltroni's grasp of the language in which he was speaking was partial - to say the least. And we're not talking about his grasp of English here, although when he made a key appearance on Bruno Vespa's top rated current affairs program and chummily joshed with his host, " as they say in English, 'I know my chickens'" it had this monkey perplexed. No, the real problem was in the language of democracy, modernisation, and reform that he spouted, like an old-fashioned evangelist speaking in tongues.

Because most of the self-criticism that has come out today from Veltroni's 'loft' 9the party's hip Web 2.0 style headquarters) has focussed on the poor record of Prodi's government, of the lack of time to put forward their message, of the fact that in the last fifteen years every outgoing government in Italy has lost. No suggestion that the brand spanking new party has made serious mistakes, and reaped the rewards of short-sighted policies.

The party that lectured the public about the importance of bringing forward more women candidates (something which they did do, at lower levels), managed to have just one in a list of seven candidates for the primaries which chose Veltroni as party president.

The party that has cast a protective net around the term 'democratic' managed to put forward Veltroni and a number of never-stood-a-chance opponents in the self-same primaries. There was not one person in Italy in doubt that Veltroni would be president of the party.

The same party, when requested by its membership to hold primaries to decide on the candidates for the election were told that there simply wasn't enough time. Presumably the same reason why, despite much hectoring on 'responsibility' and 'ethics in politics' the PD's managed to include 18 candidates with criminal records. Not, perhaps, the greatest sign that you're interested in weeding out corruption.

And the rub here is that, when Prodi's government fell, nobody gave Veltroni's party a chance of winning. Berlusconi stood at least ten points ahead in most polls (even ones not conducted by himself!), and there would be few that would lay the blame of an election defeat on the PD's doorstep. This is another way of saying that this was the best time there could ever have been to bring forth those sweeping reforms so much talked about. They could have been bold. They could have refused to candidate anyone with serious charges of corruption in their past. They could have decided that 50% of their candidates must be women. They could have, and any evenutal defeat would have been accepted as just the start of things (something they're trying to spin as we speak).

Finally, let's deal with Veltroni himself - a good and vibrant communicator, notwithstanding his chicken-english. Veltroni presented himself as a new face in Italian politics, despite the fact that he's already served as deputy prime-minister, and has been involved in the various morphing Italian left-wing parties for over twenty years. Again, a misunderstanding in terms, it would seem. When Obama presents himself as a new choice for American President, it's because he is - regardless of the merits of his candidacy, there has never been an African-American President. There's nothing new about Veltroni, apart from his website.

Today Veltroni announced that the PD's, following the tradition of the great western democracies (Just the UK this time, it would seem) would be forming a shadow cabinet. An interesting development in Italian politics, and one this monkey welcomes - at least if it gives an idea of who the real cabinet will be, if the party is ever elected to government (something unlikely, based on their incapacity to react to voters).

Another nice practice would be for Veltroni to immediately announce new primaries to choose the leadership of the party. Not that I'd like to see someone else in Veltroni's place - despite the half-arsed measures thus presided over, something tells me that given a chance he'll actually become a fluent and entertaining conversationalist in this new language. But in the great democracies, when your party suffers a humiliating defeat (and that's what it is, despite all the brave faces) someone has to pay.

Oops, forgot - that's what all those smaller left wing (extremist) parties are there for...

*The designation of 'extreme' it seems is a one-way street. Stick a hammer and sickle up and you're rightly labeled as extreme - talk about grabbing rifles and marching on Rome makes you the Lega.

A central plank in Berlusconi's election campaign was the refusal to sell the lumbering airline Alitalia to Air France, who, with a restructuring program planned to make the airline profitable (for the first time since 1984).

Berlusconi has made it clear that he intends to scupper the deal, to keep Alitalia in the hands of Italians (perhaps his own), and to maintain its proud record of service.

A company famous for overstaffing, poor service, and an admirable (from an environmental stance) record of strike action and flight groundings.

Call it a stealthily introduced aviation tax. Particularly given that the bill will eventually be paid, no doubt (despite huffing and puffing from the EU), by the Italian tax payer.

Lucky for Italy that they have some of the most up-to-date and competitive entrepreneurs in the world. One sector, more than any other, has flourished in the global and domestic market over the last fifteen years (under both right and left governments): organised crime. It's been estimated that the Mafia, for example, is worth roughly 90billion euro - or 7% of Italy's GDP.[1]

Crime C.E.Os have managed this impressive feat with hard negotiating tactics, strategic alliances, and a keen understanding of the global markets.

A perfect example is coming to light in this election campaign. Calabrian outfit the 'ndranghetta, envisioning a commodity shortage in Italy, have apparently sourced material in far-flung Venezuela.

The commodity? You guessed it - votes. An investigation is ongoing regarding efforts by the 'ndranghetta to sell votes from abroad to decide the Calabrian part of the election. An Italian businessman was heard, via intercepted telephone calls, offering 50 thousand votes for 200 thousand euro.

In today's papers a leading member of Berlusconi's Pdl, Marcello Dell'Utri admitted putting Aldo Micciché in touch directly with the Pdl candidate Barbara Contini in Reggio Calabria (ex governor of Nassirya, in the bright, bold, and democratically liberated Iraq), but denied any wrongdoing[2].

Dell'Utri, an outgoing senator of Forza Italia, is currently appealing a conviction for collusion with the mafia. It was Berlusconi's centre-right coalition that introduced the difficult to manage resident-abroad vote. No surprise, given their committment to the free market, and supporting Italy's biggest businesses (not just Alitalia).

What's not apparent from any of this, though, is how prices differ in the global and national markets. For example, how much is a vote from a Calabrian resident in Calabria worth, as opposed to a Calabrian resident in Venezuela.

[1]"la mafia e' la prima azienda italiana' - Corriere della Sera (22/10/2007)
[2]'La 'ndrangheta traffica in voti' - Corriere della Sera [12/04/2008]

Veltroni and Berlusconi have studiously avoided being drawn into the issue. Veltroni's party, filled with a sizeable proportion of theo-cons (including the cilice wearing Opus Dei senator Paola Binetti, who in an interview aired during the election campaign asserted that gays and lesbians needed medical attention for their illness)has adopted the C.U.S (contratti di unione solidale), a limited form of social contract open to couples of all persuasion - though it's buried away on their site, and makes no appearance in the party's key manifesto points. Berlusconi's PdL party has managed to avoid getting drawn into any debate on the topic, prefering to harp on about the French getting their paws into Alitalia.

So the smaller parties, and in particular the neo-fascist Destra party of Francesco Storace, get to play with it as an electoral issue. The argument against extending the various property and tax benefits entailed by marriage towards gay couples, according to figures like Daniella Santanche, is that marriage is a special social contract between the state and couples with children. Without the support of marriage, birth rates - according to their logic anyway - go down, and society enters into a crisis. A new way of repeating the age-old mantra, 'think of the children'.

So it's not homophobia, but a concern about birth rates that prevents extending various rights to co-habiting couples be they gay or otherwise.

In order to clear up confusion, then, this monkey proposes that marriage regulations be tightened up. Married couples without children should be automatically divorced by the state, and their tax bills adjusted accordingly. In cases where couples have been availing for a number of years of the advantages of marriage, without fulfilling their duty to society in return, fines should be introduced. Mitigating circumstances may include medically certified infertility, in which case no fine would be applicable (unless it could be proved that the couple were aware of their inability to contribute to society beforehand).

Contraception would be harder to address. One possibility could be the requirement to produce id when buying contraception - showing one's conjugal status (only singles would be permitted). Difficult to see the left or right of the Italian political class voting for this measure though, given that it does not take into account the possibility of adultery. Obviously, though, any married couple involved in recreational sex using contraception would run the risk of fines and, perhaps, a jail sentence.

Harsh measures, perhaps, but I think reasonable in the context of a culture that the right proposes, not of 'rights' but of 'responsibilities'.

I couldn't resist, though, drawing your attention, dear reader, to this letter, sent by blogger Andrea Baldi, in response to one of Berlusconi's 'humorous' pronouncements.

The background: Berlusconi was asked by a young woman working, like many, with a temporary contract, how one could expect to buy a house, raise a family etc in such a position. Berluska's response - "As a father, I'd advise you to marry Berlusconi's son, or someone like him, who doesn't have these kind of problems".

Baldi's response:

"Hon. Berlusconi,

Given your position on the theme of non-fixed-term work, permit me to ask for the hand of your Son. I'm not a homosexual, but if that's the only solution, I'm willing to make the sacrifice.

Kind regards,

Andrea Baldi"

Before getting into Veltroni's response (ignoring Boselli, as his electoral support is too small to enable him to become Prime Minister), we'll just take note that Berlusconi's Popolo della Liberta party have yet to respond to the question. I wouldn't hold my breath. Given that a number of high-profile party members, from Berlusconi's former party Forza Italia, have been charged with mafia related offences*, perhaps the 'against' in the question posed has party moguls scratching their heads.

Veltroni's response, coming hot on the heels of his election campaign's rallies in Sicily and Calabria, suggest the party has a determined and effective plan against the mafia ready. Veltroni, addressing the mafia directly, said during his rally in Palermo, "The Mafia and the 'ndranghetta'(the Calabrian organised crime equivalent to the Mafia) can decide what they want, but they should decide one thing: to not vote for the PD, because if the PD governs Italy it will try to destroy those powers that impede the South[...]". Brave words, perhaps, to say in the heart of the Mafia fiefdoms. Then again, the likelihood of the Mafia organising a vote for the PD in Sicily, is unlikely to say the least. In this corner of Italy's democracy votes have always gone to the centre-right - the question is more likely to be whether the Mafia will endorse Pierferdinando Casini's DC party, which currently hold the majority of seats in Sicily, or Berlusconi's Pdl party (Berlusconi's Forza Italia, in 2001 recieved 61 out of Sicily's 61 seats - something to joke about with his buddy Vladimir Putin, no doubt).

Point number six in his plan (available in Italian here), is one of the crucial ones - measures to break the links between the Mafia and Public Officials, with close monitoring of town councils suspected of collusion with the mafia (many councils have, over the years, been dissolved, after investigations revealed Mafia management of local finances), and the banning of officials with criminal records for collusion.

The continued strength of organised crime in Italy should be the #1 issue in any election, as it has ramifications for the entire society. Italy's economic performance is crippled by organised crime (would you invest in an area where you're subjected to unofficial taxes, decided by thugs with guns). Italy's infrastructure is crippled, as monies are siphoned off to build elaborate and unecessary public works in Mafia controlled territories. The health of Italy's citizens, most particularly in the South, has been dramatically compromised on several fronts by Mafia interference. Whether it's the control and management of expensive private health clinics in Sicily, or the dumping of toxic waste around Napoli, the physical and economic damage inflicted by organised crime is devastating.

So Veltroni's plan is to be welcomed. How serious is it though, when you take a look at the PD's electoral list. When the list was first published, anti-mafia campaigners were dumbfounded at the absence of Giuseppe Lumia, a member of the constituent assembly of the PD's and a leading anti-mafia campaigner. Lumia, according to Mafia witnesses, was sentenced to death by former boss Bernardo Provenzano, during his (Lumia) tenure as head of the parliamentary anti-mafia commission.

An ommission can be forgiven, particularly in the bright new 'meritocracy' ushered in by the birth of the PD. Perhaps Lumia didn't get on the list because there were other, more talented people who can organise the fight against the mafia?

Like Salvo Andò, a veteran Sicilian politician who was charged during the Mani Pulite investigations with collusion with the Catania based Mafia clan Santapaola in exchange for votes, as well as charges of corruption. Technically, Ando has a clean record, as he was cleared on some charges, whilst others were dismissed due to the statute of limitations.

Like Vladimiro Crisafulli, who was filmed kissing presumed mafia boss Raffaele Bevilaqua, with whom he discussed at length various public-tenders, positions etc.

If the PD wants to be taken seriously about its plan for Organised Crime, the first thing to do is to ensure that there can be no doubts about any of its electoral candidates. Without that, the difference between them and Berlusconi is only rhetoric.

*For example Marcello Dell'Utri, often cited as the 'brains' behind the formation of Forza Italia back in the '90s. Dell'Utri, currently a Senator, stands convicted of collusion with the Mafia - a conviction which is being appealed. It was Dell'Utri who introduced Berlusconi to his enigmatic stable-keeper/gardener the mafioso Vittorio Mangano.

"Are you objecting that advertising and propoganda cannot be compared, because one serves commerce and the other ideology? You understand nothing. Some one hundred years ago in Russia, persecuted Marxists began to gather secretly in small circles in order to study Marx's manifesto; they simplified the contents of this simple ideology in order to disseminate it to other circles, whose members, simplifying further and further this simplification of the simple, kept passit it on and aon, so that when Marxism became known and powerful on the whole planet all that was left of it was a collection of six or seven slogans, so poorly linked that it can hardly be called an ideology. And precisely because the remnants of Marx no logner form any logical system of ideas, but only a series of suggestive images and slogans (a smiling worker with a hammer, black, white and yellow men fraternally holding hands, the dove of peace rising to the sky, and so on and so on), we can rightfully talk of a gradual, general, planetary transformation of ideology into imagology." [Milan Kundera - Immortality, pg 126-127]

The cartoon, which pictures a loosely disguised Fiamma Nirenstein, a journalist and commentator running as a candidate for Berlusconi's Pdl party, as an electoral monster 'Fiamma Frankenstein', has been accused by both Nirenstein and the American Anti-Defamation League of being anti-semitic. The ADL called on the communist newspaper to apologise for the publication of the cartoon, which depicted a monstrous Nirenstein with a star of David, a Pdl logo, and the fascio littorale - the original symbol of Mussolini's fascists - on her chest.

the cartoon is an uncomfortable one, partly for the reasons outlined by the ADL. To place the star of David alongside the Fascio Littorale is disturbing - and was, no doubt intentionally so. The suggestion, though, that the cartoon is anti-semitic falls down upon close examination.

The accusation that the cartoon attempts to denigrate the Pdl by highlighting that a Jew is on their electoral list is not supported by any particular evidence. What the ADL leave out of their accusation is the hugely important fact that inspired the cartoon - namely that Berlusconi's party, the Pdl has grouped together in its electoral list not just the post-fascist Alleanza Nazionale party, and Alessandra Mussolini (as proud as ever of her Grandfather, and happy to tell anyone prepared to listen of the fact), but also the 'proud fascist' Giuseppe Ciarrapico - who holds, amongst his wide business interests, a publishing house specialising in fascist and revisionist history.

Vauro's cartoon is certainly unpleasant, but it serves a purpose that is anything but anti-semitic. It highlights a disturbing alliance - and one that the ADL should be at pains to point out, namely a mainstream European political party that, for electoral gains, is flirting dangerously with its fascist past. It's not the first time, either, that Berlusconi has aligned himself with the fascists. This modern statesman, who has been honoured by the ADL, despite the fact that he has described Mussolini as 'benign', and referred to people having been sent 'on holiday to internal exile'. A view of history that ignores the political repression, the introduction of racial laws, and ultimately the collusion of Mussolini's fascist government with the Holocaust.

The cartoon representaion of Fiamma Nirenstein is offensive, but her remaining in the Pdl alongside Fascist apologists is far more so.

In a country where it's a common superstition that grasping one's 'palle' wards off bad-luck, this is bad news for many. Aside from putting many men (warding off bad-luck is anatomically reserved) on the wrong side of the law, the move calls into question whether the brightest legal minds in the country are being put to their best use. In 2006, according to statistics released by the courts 48,103 appeal cases remained open, while 44,511 were closed.

Now, here's the rub. Were this a case brought in England, it seems to this monkey, it would have been for defamation, suggesting that the accusation of buffoonery had damaged his reputation (something that could never stand in court, given that his reputation is largely based precisely on buffoonery). In Italy, instead, it was a case to determine whether Mr B. had been insulted or not. In the heel of the hunt Berlusconi lost his case, as the Cassazione ruled that in the context (including the place of its utterance) in which the phrase had been shouted it was a 'strong critique' rather than an insult.

So place and intent become important to decide whether you've actually insulted someone. This leads to a complex system where one is constantly in danger of running foul of the law. Offence, after all, is in the eye - or ear - of the beholder.

A case in point. The Cassazione ruled that to call a normal citizen a 'fascist' was an insult. To label a politician a 'fascist' instead becomes a 'ideological critique'. This leaves us in the interesting position that one could encounter a proud skinhead, brandishing a flag with flame and celtic cross (out to scare children and immigrants), and call him a fascist. He/she would no-doubt be quite proud of this label, but according to the logic of the court's setence would be entitled to bring you to court for insulting his/her honour.

Buffoons - the lot of them.

How significant the move is remains to be seen, though. Opinion polls published during the week suggested that 68% of Italians favoured excluding candidates who have served in more than three legislatures. This has been a theme since Beppe Grillo's proposals for a popular law last september, conditions of which included a ban on serving more than two terms of office.

Lowering the age of candidates for parliament will, undoubtedly, be a popular move amongst a large part of the electorate. The argument that such a move would exclude a vast range of experience from government falls on deaf ears, unsurprisingly given the dismal way that this established political class has run the country for the last twenty years.

Putting a focus on age will also help Veltroni in the direct contest between himself and Silvio Berlsuconi. Berlusconi, despite the fact that he carries his years well (with the aid of high-heels and hair transplants), is actually seventy-two.

The doubts, though, remain that Veltroni has simply used the popular introduction of the three-legislatures exclusion rule to target De Mita, with whom he allegedly fails to see eye-to-eye. In fact, while a number of high-profile members of the PD, for example Romano Prodi, have automatically excluded themselves from candidature citing the rule, there is a facility available to appeal the rule. We thus need to see the full list of candidates before seeing how renovated this PD party will be.

Suggestions that the PD's moves are ageist couldn't, however, be further from the truth. While in other sectors turning 65 usually signifies a major scale down in work, in the Italian political system of today, Veltroni's party included, its no impediment to taking on serious office. De Mita won't be on Veltroni's list of candidates for the election, but leading Oncologist, and political novice, Umberto Veronesi will be. Veronesi turned 82 last November.