ITALY-: Italian satirical programme pokes fun at politicians ahead of February 24-25 elections

Record ID: 858708

  • Title: ITALY-: Italian satirical programme pokes fun at politicians ahead of February 24-25 elections
  • Date: 20th February 2013
  • Summary: VARIOUS PUPPETS RINGING A BELL ON SET AFTER ANSWERING QUESTIONS VARIOUS OF MONITOR
  • Embargoed: 7th March 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • City:
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Entertainment,Quirky,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADVEVR7ZKF9AF9GVVZWXGK2SJ8
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: So far Italy's main political candidates in the February 24-25 elections have not been able to agree when and how to hold a televised debate to give the electorate a chance to evaluate their policies.
    And as time rolls on, it is looking more and more likely the only place they will appear on air together at the same time, will be in puppet form one of the country's most popular satirical programmes.
    "Gli Sgommati" is the Italian version of British show Spitting Image, a programme produced by Palomar for Sky Uno, that goes out every evening from Monday to Friday. And as the country's polls draw closer, the longer election edition entitled "Election Addiction" is being lapped up by audiences keen to see their political class ridiculed.
    "For me, I don't think we recount things that are so far removed from the real political world, we put the paradoxes in evidence," the show's Director Pietro Iona told Reuters television.
    "We certainly have a lot of material to work with, because what the politicians say is often silly and you can see even at this moment, I mean the pope has just said he would resign," Iona said highlighting the strange events that seem to be hitting Italy at the moment.
    All the main players are seen on the show. Of course former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is there in all his glory, alongside outgoing prime minister Mario Monti, centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani and comedian-turned politician Beppe Grillo.
    "Berlusconi is an excellent actor of the theatre of the absurd. With him as an actor we always try to underline what is most absurd of what he is saying. Then there are characters like Bersani who are the "anti-one-man-show" - the complete opposite (of Berlusconi) and we try to emphasis his clumsiness and his difficulty in communicating and his insecurity," Iona said.
    Italian politicians are stepping up their campaigns in the last days before the election and while opinion polls are banned, one of Italy's leading pollsters, Renato Mannheimer, said 27.7 percent of Italians were still undecided or could abstain.
    Although pollsters believe the centre-left has maintained a lead of around 4-5 points over Berlusconi's centre-right since the last polls on February 8, they are widely predicting an inconclusive result in the Senate.
    The most likely outcome is that centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani will be forced into the arms of Monti in order to win control of the Senate, which has equal law-making powers with the lower house.
    "I cannot see a winner in these elections, unfortunately, it will be a huge mess," Iona said.
    "For me the only thing I can see is that the mess continues, and the mess that we see in our show I think will continue in real life after the elections," he added.
    With so much uncertainty about the election and the chances fading of it returning a strong, stable reformist government, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Italy's slow, steady economic decline will continue regardless of the result.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Audio restrictions: This clip's Audio includes copyrighted material. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing the audio contained in this clip.
Register