CADO IN PIEDI, DIRITTO DI POLEMICA (Italy)
ROME – An economic crisis makes creative thinking an imperative. And in Italy, there are always political leaders out there thinking creatively.
Here’s one recent thought from Pier Luigi Bersani, head of the center-left Democratic Party (PD): “I say that someone who pays their taxes has the right to have an ambulance, while someone who doesn’t, I’m not sure,” Italian website Cado In Piedi reported. He pointed out that not paying your taxes is not only an act against the State but also against other citizens: “For every individual escaping tax, there is someone else who pays taxes.” He added “We pay too much tax because we are not enough people paying them.”
Meanwhile, across the political spectrum there is Mario Borghezio, a member of the populist Northern League. He used a radio show to offer some advice for Prime Minister Mario Monti’s looking after Italy’s public coffers. “One of the solutions could be that Monti sold Sicily and Campania to a foreign country or to some billionaire,” Diritto di Polemica reports, referring to two poor southern regions. Saying there was “no hope” for these parts of Italy, he imagined hocking one of the regions to Barack Obama: The United States could “add a star to their national flag.”