Word: bossy
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...coming week, the budget bill, which has passed the Chamber of Deputies, goes before the Senate, where the Berlusconi government lacks a majority. If the bill is defeated, the Prime Minister may carry out his threat to resign and force new elections. If it passes, coalition partner Umberto Bossi, head of the Northern League, may resign or switch allegiance to protest against Berlusconi's leadership...
...dismal showing of the ruling parties may force President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to call for new parliamentary elections, possibly as early as next February. Last week's winners were already beginning to reposition themselves as new coalition builders attractive to the mainstream. Said the Northern League's secretary, Umberto Bossi: "A center party does exist in Italy, and it's called the League." Countered Achille Occhetto, leader of the Democratic Party of the Left: "We are a great alliance of progressive forces that can confront the League and offer a democratic alternative to the Christian Democrats...
...good- government party fresh from a referendum victory, his credibility might woo scandal-weary voters. However, it is unlikely he could put together an organization in time to benefit from the next elections, which could come as early as autumn. The populist Northern League led by Umberto Bossi has come on strong, but it must still extend its base of support beyond the northern provinces. Even if the referendum inspires new elections, Italians seem destined to endure yet another coalition, including, if no longer dominated by, the very parties responsible for their present quandary...
With traditional parties like the Socialists and Christian Democrats discredited, voters are seeking alternatives. The big winner has been the Northern League, the populist movement that has ranted against official corruption for years. Founder Umberto Bossi once wanted to partition Italy into two or three separate states. Now that his party is Italy's third most powerful, he calls instead for greater regional autonomy...
That might seem surprising, since Bossi's league originated as a separatist group urging the north to secede from a central government that was bleeding it for the sake of the poorer south. But voters up and down the peninsula are attracted by the league's message of opposition to corruption and confusion in high places, to government taxation and red tape, and to every social ill from joblessness and drug peddling to immigration. Bossi and some of his allies have voiced views toward dark-skinned immigrants that are as racist as any in Europe...