Does Italy like a good loser?

“As is customary in all Western democracy, and as I feel it is right to do, I called the leader of the People of Freedom, Silvio Berlusconi, to acknowledge his victory and wish him good luck in his job,” Veltroni told reporters, bowing to the inevitable, even if final results were hours away.

Berlusconi has never admitted losing the 2006 election which he blamed on fraud and Veltroni’s noble gesture seemed to be the latest effort to imitate his much-admired counterparts in the Anglo-Saxon world where ‘fair play’ is, in theory, considered a virtue.

“I can’t deny that I think the 2006 elections were
irregular. The result we achieved today is proof of that,”
Berlusconi said.

Barack Obama, from whom Veltroni copied his “Yes we can” slogan “Si puo’ fare”, will be hoping he does not to have to make a phone call similar to Veltroni’s any time soon.