very useful, thanks Marco On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 2:44 PM, M. Fioretti <[email protected]> wrote:

On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 14:13:24 PM +0700, Michel Bauwens ( [email protected]) wrote:

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/19/ AR2011011906191.html?sid=ST2010121305002

any comments from our italian friends?

Nichi Vendola, a gay, ex-communist governor, becomes the unlikely rival to Italy's Berlusconi

Hi Michel,

you caught me in the act of adding the following comment to that WP article:

Vendola can be very pragmatic and take decisions very similar to those of the Berlusconi Cabinet when he sees the need for it, see my article about his deal with Microsoft:

http://stop.zona-m.net/2010/11/italian-left-leader-signs-berlusconi-like-dea...

and the follow-ups tagged with "Vendola" to that story on the same blog

Personally, what disturbs me in that story is the _method_ and _attitude_ (because he may do it other times as he did this one). Unlike others I do find funny, so to speak, that he signed a deal with Microsoft, but I am NOT scandalized by it. (successful) politics also needs pragmatism and balance. No problem about that. But I really don't like the fact that, in that case, Vendola basically didn't answer critics: he just completely changed topic. To see what I mean, just read the "Don’t change the subject, please!" part of

http://stop.zona-m.net/2010/12/how-should-we-manage-the-vendola-puglia-micro...

(also explained in http://stop.zona-m.net/2010/11/nichi-vendola-explains-but-does-he-his-berlus...)

More in general... my absolutely personal feeling right now, without any rigorous analysis to back it up, is that how much success he'll have on a national scale depends on how many votes he'll attract from the many Italians who stopped going to vote years ago

Marco

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