052: Small Town Italian Politics

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In this episode, we catch up with some renovations happening at the villa and Paul’s adventure in local small town Italian politics.

Topics we cover:

•  How we added three new bathrooms upstairs

•  How we saved a lot of time and money by using existing sewer pipes instead of adding in new ones and new construction to our first floor

•  How Paul loves using Farrow & Ball paints

•  Paul’s explanation between dyes and pigments

•  Impressionist paintings

•  One villa guest who stayed with us, Natvar Bhavsar who used pigments in his painting

•  Paul’s adventure in politics

•  Three strange rules (strange to us) that exist in Italian elections

•  First off there were 290 candidates for 17 city council seats

•  One reason is each of the parties, of which there are many, they have to nominate a certain number of people in order to be considered a “list” or a “party”

•  All these parties then form coalitions, there were three this election nominating three men for mayor

•  The next rule that was strange was the fact that you have two votes for city council, and if you want to use both votes, one has to be for a man and one for a woman

•  While understanding the thinking behind this, it seems like a strange law

•  In a national election, you are voting for a party, not for a person

•  In Italy, people always lament about how people here get jobs not so much based on merit, but on who they know, etc.

•  However, when it comes to politics, most people don’t seem to be voting based on merits, but on the fact they are voting for their cousin, or their brother-in-law, or their neighbor, etc.

•  The election outcome

•  Why the one left wing coalition is not throwing his support behind the other left-wing coalition

•  What it will take for Paul’s party to win in the runoff election

•  Paul’s speech during the election

•  Steven’s surprise in the passion and dedication people showed for a small town election, holding debates and getting very fired up

•  How some of the people during the debates were spitting on the other candidates

•  How the whole town almost shuts down a few days before the election

•  There is a 48 media blackout before the election

•  What the incumbents did to win the election

•  The results of the election for Paul

•  How because there are so many candidates running, a guy who got 2% of the vote got elected to city council

•  Why this seems so confusing for us coming from a two party system

•  NOTE/UPDATE:  Paul’s party did not win in the runoff election

•  Why Paul decided to run

•  How Paul uses Facebook to influence the government here

Some more about Italian politics

• Italy is run through a Parliamentary Republic with a multi-party system.

• Italy has been a Parliamentary Republic since June 2, 1946 when the monarchy was abolished

•  Executive power is held by the Council of Ministers which is led by a Prime Minister

•  Legislative power is held by two house of parliament primarily, and secondarily by the Council of Ministers which can introduce bills and holds the majority of the parliament

•  The judiciary is independent of the executive and legislative and headed by the High Council of the Judiciary

Paul’s Speech: