29 July 2004 Italy: Berlusconi Runs Out of Time By Gwynne Dyer Silvio Berlusconi is safe for the summer. Everybody in Italy has gone away for the holidays, politics is on hold, and he can luxuriate for a few weeks in the fact that he leads the longest-lasting government in Italy since the fall of …
11 March 2004 Spain’s Response By Gwynne Dyer Taking the relative size of Spain and the United States into account, Thursday’s terrorist atrocities in Madrid amounted to about half a 9/11: almost 200 dead and over 1,400 injured in a population of less than 40 million. Spain’s people and government are very angry, and they …
8 June 2003 Italy Is In Trouble By Gwynne Dyer “Italy is in danger,” said centre-left leader Francesco Rutelli early last month. “We risk becoming a regime without even realising it.” Since then, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s close political ally and personal lawyer Cesare Previti has been convicted of bribery on Berlusconi’s behalf and sentenced …
26 April 2002 Jean-Marie Le Pen By Gwynne Dyer ‘A terrifying cataclysm,” said the French finance minister, Laurent Fabius. “A thunderbolt,” said Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, announcing that he was retiring from politics. “Ashamed to be French,” read the banner unfurled by one disgusted voter. What was it that prompted this hysterical response? It was …