You chose: vote

  • During the vote on Premier Matteo Renzi’s controversial election reform bill nicknamed the “Italicum,” the leftist MPs from Nichi Vendola’s Sinistra Ecologica Liberta’ party wore black mourning bands. But the Renzi bill sailed through the Chamber of Deputies with a comfortable margin, leaving Italy itself more victor than funeral parlor. “Not everyone is on board, but the ship is sailing forward,” said an obviously relieved Renzi.
  • It was night in Rome’s down-market suburb of Infernetto, and to show that immigrants are unwelcome there, rightwingers fashioned gruesome mannequins clothed all in white, and hanged them from bridge rafters over a main road. This was a local protest, but the wave of anti-immigrant feeling shows signs of penetrating into the wider population, with fallout in this weekend’s regional vote in Emilia-Romagna and Calabria