Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Riots shatter Italy as Berlusconi buys his survival through confidence vote

Major riots have erupted in Rome, Milan, Turin and other Italian cities as the parliament narrowly rejected to kick out the most controversial Prime Minister of the Repubblica, Silvio Berlusconi.

Berlusconi managed to survive politically a bit more by 314 to 311 votes but the people is clearly not the least happy about this outcome, specially in the context of austerity budget draconian cuts, which have already sparked many protests in the recent past.

A key element not well explained by the media is that Berlusconi's party (PDL) bought several deputies for this crucial and uncertain vote. This has been denounced by famous anti-corruption judge Antonio di Pietro, now opposition MP (source: Gara[es]). Obviously this corruption of politics is taking off all legitimacy from this vote.

So the people, specially students, who have been a most dynamic force not only in Italy but also in France and Britain, went to the streets. Hundreds of thousands of them! The result: massive riots leaving some 100 people injured, half of them police agents.

Rome burns. Should buy a lyre for Nero-Berlusconi to play or rather should we invest in guillotine technology? I'm rather for the latter.

Videos at BBC, Euronews and La Haine. Also many photos and more or less updated info at this last site (in Spanish). Some pics from the La Haine gallery follow:

As in previous demos, students used shields titled as classical books

Massive numbers of rioters

Angry rioters

Very angry

Plain clothes policemen resorted to guns

Anonymous' Guy Fawkes mask was present: Let them all go home!

Very, very angry indeed

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