Italians want to have a say in the way their country is run（在线收听） |
MILAN, Italy, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- After traveling his country far and wide for years, Italian Paolo Galimberti stepped back as head of young entrepreneurs of Confcommercio business association in order to "give a helping hand to the upswing of national economy.""I was one of the thousands small and medium entrepreneurs oppressed by record-high taxes, labyrinthine bureaucracy and credit crunch. I could not stand seeing the backbone of Italy's economy going into such a decline, thus I decided to enter politics," he told Xinhua on Thursday. Galimberti highlighted that he wanted to have a say in the way his country is run by the next government due to replace the technocratic cabinet of caretaker premier Mario Monti.
He will compete for a seat in parliament with former premier Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition in the Feb. 24-25 election.
As parties formally filed their lists earlier this week, contenders from the center-left led by former industry minister Pier Luigi Bersani, which is ahead in polls, to the Berlusconi formation and the Monti centrists, all raced to present a range of aspiring politicians chosen from a variety of professional fields including journalism, magistrature and the sports world.
Explaining his reasons for running with Bersani's Democratic Party (PD), Massimo Mucchetti, a well-known economic commentator of Italy's largest circulation newspaper Corriere della Sera, said that he felt the urgent need of "new faces" to put an end to the "20-year unfortunate Berlusconi's season.""I think anyone who has accumulated working skills that may be useful to the country has a civic duty to participate in the governance of public affairs," he told Xinhua.
Electoral analysts said that, in fact, over the past weeks Italians have started to show increasing interest in politics, after appearing detached for months from their scandal-hit leaders.
"The mounting electoral debate as well as the PD primaries to select candidates, held with the help of more than 100,000 volunteers, especially contributed to make grow interest," a political science professor at the University Carlo Bo of Urbino and one of leading experts on voting trends, Ilvo Diamanti, told Xinhua.
"When Italians were called to take part, their response was very positive," he said.
Meanwhile, the number of those undecided or not intended to go to the polls, though still around 37 percent, has continued to decrease among the 51 million citizens who will be called on to vote next month.
Valentina Vezzali, winner of six Olympic gold medals in foil competitions and who will be on the Monti list, said that she was brought close to politics by a renewed sense of responsibility.
"I could not passively accept scandals, dishonesty and above all a way of doing politics which was far away from its deepest meaning, thus decided to adhere to a great reform project," she told Xinhua.
Other dozens of candidates across the entire political spectrum were chosen from among the world of associationism, from crime-fighting groups to cultural and environmental organizations, showing that "openness to society can be an antidote to anti-politics," wrote La Repubblica national newspaper.
Even the portion of voters, around 14 percent according to most recent polls, supporting the anti-establishment Five Star Movement led by Beppe Grillo indicated "a certain form of political mobilization based on strong criticism," Diamanti added.
Grillo, a former comedian turned activist, has mustered thousands of disillusioned people via the web and social media. They are part of the "political community" counting as many as 29 percent of the nearly 36 million Italians surfing the internet, a survey by Demos & Pi research institute showed. |
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