I wonder... (Berlusconi story IV)

The election is now happening, and guess what? It looks like the psycho dwarf (aka Berlusconi) is going to win.
In the end of the 80's Italy had a economic growth so big, that it became the 3rd largest economy in Europe. When the European union was created, Italy's prime minister Andreotti was one of the main characters behind it.
Today, however, this is nothing more than a memory. Italians are currently trying to overcome the large blow to their pride when it came out that the Spanish economy was now better than their own. This was hard to swallow, since the Italians always considered Spanish development to be many years behind the one of Italy.
From being among the top in Brussels, it has now been many years since anyone listened to what people from Rome say. Last time Italy held the EU presidency(2003), it ended in a catastrophe. At the European summit that year, where the new European union treaty should have been negotiated, Berlusconi started out with saying that he would actually rather talk about "football and women". which made most of the other country leaders leaving the table, shaking their heads.

So now, when the Italians are going to the urns, it is quite surprising that they are actually going to vote for him again. Luckily for the EU, the return of the psycho dwarf will not do much, since Italy is long gone from the central administration of EU. But more unsettling is the fact that the Italians apparently reward politicians which avoid making the reforms which the Italian economy is screaming for. The - now former - Premier, Prodi, tried by closing some of the holes in the tax laws, but even these small steps made him so unpopular that his own successor, Veltroni, had to distance himself from them.

So while the EU commission has given several warnings to Italy to clean up its messy economy, Berlusconi is still promising to make extensive traffic projects, among others a bridge to Sicily. Italy currently has a public debt of such size, that every Italian would have to pay 1,200 euro a year, just in interest.

So, to make it short, what the hell are the Italians thinking about when they vote for him again?

Most of this post is taken (and translated) from an article found in a Danish newspaper "Berlingske Tidende" (link) plus my own comments, and rewrites;-)