There’s an election coming up on April 9 in Italy. Right-Wingnut Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is about 5% behind in the polls. But he may have found a high-tech, all American solution.

Il Blog di Beppe Grillo (English edition):

The “Diario” of Enrico Deaglio came out today with an edition devoted to possible election frauds due to electronic voting, to be used for the first time in Italy in national elections thanks to the decree dated 3 January 2006.
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This operation, which is not necessary and has not been requested by anyone, costs 34 Million Euro and was outsourced by private negotiations for reasons of urgency, “since the time interval available was very short” according to Stanca. The contracts were won by three companies: Accenture, EDS and Telecom Italia. Deaglio points out that the son of the Minister of the Interior Pisanu is a partner in Accenture and that EDS is the company involved in the presumed electoral fraud in Florida for the election of Bush.

More Italian election tragicomedy:

- The film “Il Caimano” (the Cayman, a relation of the Crocodile and Berlusconi’s nickname in Italian politics), a fictional account of his life’s story, opened last weekend.

Italy’s most eagerly awaited film of the year has opened in 380 cinemas across the country, but Silvio Berlusconi will not be going to see it. “Absolutely not,” he snapped when a reporter asked him.

This is hardly surprising: the film revolves around the many controversies of the Italian Prime Minister’s career. And it concludes with - the finale that through a long series of criminal trials Mr Berlusconi has so far managed to avoid - a conviction and a long jail sentence. In the film’s apocalyptic last sequence, after the judges’ verdict the Prime Minister figure tells reporters outside court that the people, his supporters, should react “in any way you like” to the court’s decision. Cue fire-bombs detonating on the steps of the court.

- A bizarre new law will allow Italians living abroad to vote in the election:

There are at least 60 million people of Italian descent living outside Italy, which itself is home to just 58 million people, and some 2.8 million Italians abroad are registered to vote — more than the electorate in Rome.

Not content with staying outside of the media spotlight for long, Berlusconi followed up his claims of being the Jesus Christ of Politics with:

- Accusing Communists of boiling babies

- Yelling at a conference of Italian industrialists that they should get back to work

For a quick, fair and balanced background on Berluscojones, see this Guardian UK editorial: New Labour must recognise that Berlusconi is the devil:

Berlusconi is the most dangerous political phenomenon in Europe. He represents the most serious threat to democracy in western Europe since 1945. It might be argued that the far right as represented by such openly racist and xenophobic figures as Jean-Marie Le Pen and Jörg Haider poses a more serious danger, but such figures remain relative outsiders in the European political scene. Berlusconi does not. During his two spells as prime minister there has been a very serious erosion of the quality of Italian democracy and the tone of public life.

Democracy depends upon the separation of political, economic, cultural and judicial power. Berlusconi’s ownership of the major television channels - and his control of the state-owned network, Rai, during his premiership - together with his willingness to use this media power for his own naked political ambitions, has undermined democracy. Further, he has changed the laws of the land at will - using his majority in parliament - to protect his personal interests and save himself from the courts.

The connection between Berlusconi and Italian fascism is not difficult to decipher. There has always been a predictable tendency to expect fascism to recur in its old forms; but that has never been the main danger. What we should fear is the reappearance of fascism in a new guise, reflecting the new global, economic and cultural conditions of the time, while at the same time drawing on national traditions. Berlusconi is precisely such a figure. He treats democracy with contempt: at each turn he seeks to undermine, distort and abuse it. He has no respect for the independent pillars of authority - prepared to accuse the judges of being stooges of the opposition and describe them as “communists”.

And then there’s that whole thing about the Yellowcake docs, probably forged by, and definitely passed on to the Americans by, members of Berlusconi’s Italian Secret Service (SISMI). In an interconnected world, creeping fascism creeps all over the place.

Image of Berluscojones fondling the breasts of Democracy from La Repubblica

Just for kicks: color coded map of Italian soccer hooligan groups’ political affiliations. Via Henry at Crooked Timber.