A country awaits the verdict of the ballot box

On the final day of voting in legislative elections (Monday, April 10), Massimo L. Salvadori, a professor of history at the university of Turin, looks back at the campaign. "The idea so insistently expressed by President Ciampi that competition between the political groupings of our nation should be based on mutual legitimacy, a shared respect for the rules of the democratic game and the fact that changing political leaders is a normal event - one that is neither exceptional nor traumatic - is dead. Berlusconi eviscerated it by casting his victory as the salvation of the nation, and his defeat as its downfall. ... We want to become a normal country. ... The country is profoundly divided, Prodi has appealed for unity, for a coming-together of the various forces, a reunification of the nation. He was right because in order to get the country back on track one must mobilise all its energies."

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