Western European News Digest
Blair 'Mortally Wounded' by Election Results
A leading British strategist and military historian told EIR June 14 that "the whole push for a 'New American Century' is now in big trouble, and the neo-conservative crowd pushing it are more dangerously isolated than ever, because their main ally internationally, Tony Blair, has been deeply damaged, mortally wounded, by the June 10 election results." His comment led to a discussion of Henry Luce and the origins of the "New American Century," as documented in the new LaRouche Campaign's "Children of Satan III" report.
"Look at what this 'New American Century' drive has brought," he said. "First there is Afghanistan, which is now under control of the warlords and heroin traders. Then comes the Iraq debacle, a crashing error of judgment. The whole idea has been thoroughly discredited."
"Tony Blair is now almost entirely diminished, effectively his efforts to be a charmer are thoroughly discredited. He'll try to hang on, but the reality is now that the more he stays on, the more his problems will multiply, and will make his ability to rule all the more impossible."
Bank of England Governor Warns of Overspending
At the annual City of London dinner, on June 14, Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, cautioned the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, politely but pointedly, about expanding government spending, and over-expectations on increasing tax revenues. Brown has claimed that, based on a supposed 3% growth of the British economy, tax revenues will rise by almost 15% by over the next three years, from 455 billion to 522 billion pounds!
King said that the Treasury's scales were "tilting more towards the spending side. I am assured that the projected rise in tax revenues over the next three years will allow the scales to swing back to what is known in the trade as a sustainable fiscal position.
"This is important because the improvement in the fiscal stance in recent years has been a key element in achieving macroeconomic stability."
The Independent reported June 17 that the Treasury projections of rising tax revenues have "raised eyebrows in the City." Also, there have been a series of warnings from think tanks, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies, that Brown is "over optimistic" about increasing tax revenues, The Times reported.
French Elections Trapped in a Roman Circus
The European elections in France were non-elections: 57.2% of the voters abstained and, among the 42.8% who did vote, about 29% voted for the Socialist opposition, 5% for the Communists, 7.4% for the ecologists, 9.8% for the extreme-right wing National Front and 8.4% for the "sovereignists," anti-European chauvinists of all colors. The centrists of the UDF got about 12%, leaving the UMP, the pro-Raffarin, pro-Chirac forces with only a bit less than 17%. In a word, the same happened in France, as in England, Germany, and Italy.
The punishment meted out Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was the same or worse, than that given to Blair, Berlusconi, and Schroeder. The tragicomic element is that the French Socialists (PS) got very good results for the same reason as the German Christian Democrats (CDU): They are in the opposition, and most of the votes went for the opposition, whatever its name, to avenge the social austerity of their governments!
Public and private television, on government orders, decided to give minimal coverage to the elections, a circumstance spectacularly aggravated by the fact that the results were given during the France-England football match! Some paper chose to put a picture of two goals in the last two minutes of play rather than election results. Even the Paris mayor's house had big screen video in front of city hall running the match.
Both the extreme-right and extreme-left parties lost votes, to the benefit of the Socialist opposition. Indeed, it was the night of the living dead.
Mussolini Elected to European Parliament
Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader of Italy in the 1920s and 1930s, was elected to the European Parliament on the Alternativa Sociale list, which won almost 400,000 votes at the national level (about 1.2%), and, therefore, was able to elect one member to the European Parliament. Second after Mussolini was Roberto Fiore, an MI6 veteran of the Strategy of Tension and member of Blas Piñar's Synarchist International, who received 18,144 votes.
Mussolini was also elected, with 7% of the vote, to the provincial council in Latina, a central Italian city founded by Il Duce on a former swamp, the Paludi Pontine, the locale of a famous, although controversial land-reclamation project under Fascism. Mussolini populated the newly drained areas with very poor families from the Veneto region, whose descendants are still partially affected by a local cult of Mussolini's "greatness" (indeed, that region overcame poverty only in the postwar period). Mussolini got her highest percentage, 13.8%, in Ponza, a famous island in the Latina province where Il Duce used to jail his political opponents.
Italian Elections Upset Government and Opposition
At first glance, Italy seemed to have escaped the general debacle of government parties in the European elections which took place June 12-14. In fact, the government coalition slightly increased their votes. However, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's party, Forza Italia, fell from 25.2% to 21%, losing six parliament seats. The coalition gained only because other partners gained: The Christian Democrats (CDU) went from 4.8 to 5.9%; the neo-fascists (Alleanza Nazionale) from 10.3 to 11.5%, the Lega Nord (Northern League) from 4.5 to 5%, the rightwing socialists from 0% to 2% and the Liberal Democrats from 0.5 to 0.7%.
Berlusconi's losses and the gains of his government partners are due to the fact that the partners had publicly disassociated themselves from Berlusconi's fiscal policies, especially the tax-cut proposal which had become the main issue of the campaign. Berlusconi's party also suffered severe losses in the local elections. He lost the regional governments in Sardinia and Apulie, and his party lost votes in Sicily, three former strongholds.
The results will have several implications, of a different nature. First, Berlusconi might be forced to sacrifice Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, who had become a target especially of the AN representatives. At the same time, Alemanno invited his party to pay attention to Mussolini's electoral results. These synarchists claim that they would push a more "social" policy than the current government one. Secondly, some heads could roll in the neo-con cabal which has run Berlusconi's Forza Italia, and which is ultimately responsible for the election failure. Especially Sandro Bondi, the national coordinator of FI, is now at risk. Bondi, a former communist, is part of a trio infernale together with (former) P2 member Fabrizio Cicchitto and Berlusconi's old buddy Marcello dell'Utri. In his public interview last year, old P2 puppetmaster Licio Gelli praised both Bondi and Cicchitto. Now, Bondi could see the comeback of Claudio Scaiola, the very same man he replaced. Scaiola, a former Christian Democrat, is more of a traditional conservative. His city, Imperia, is the only place where FI gained votes.
Elections Spell Trouble for Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi, leader of the opposition, and candidate to replace Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the next elections, did not perform well in the European and local elections in Italy. How could the Italians vote for the head of the technocratic EU Commission? The Olive Tree coalition did get more votes than Berlusconi's party (31.1%), but less than in the last European elections (32.5%). The reason is, that they were divided on the Iraq issue, and they supported the Maastricht "stability pact," accusing Berlusconi of violating it!
However, Prodi's leadership and program are now challenged by former trade union leader Sergio Cofferati, who won the race for Mayor in Bologna on a united front platform. Cofferati included in his coalition all the left-wing parties that the Olive Tree considers to be too extremist, which in the European elections collected together 12.5% of the vote. In October 2002, Cofferati had led the successful anti-war demonstration in Florence, which drew between 500,000 and 1 million people, isolating and neutralizing the black bloc terrorists who had previously devastated Genoa. At that time, "clash of civilizations" prostitute Oriana Fallaci blew up at Cofferati's success, calling him a new "Napoleon" taking over the anarchist troops.
For further news and analysis of the European elections, see InDepth this week.
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