"The Finns don't even know what prosciutto is."

December 17, 2001 8:16 AM

"The Finns don't even know what prosciutto is." Pork barreling in the European Union courtesy of Berlusconi, Chirac and Schroeder.
posted by Voyageman (6 comments total)

Well, at least Verhofstadt seems sensible.
posted by aramaic at 9:04 AM on December 17, 2001

Those poor italians, do they deserve Berlusconi? i can only hope that he lives up to his promises and re-vitalises the economy.
Given his past 'business' activities, i wouldn't expect eradicating corruption to be top of his list of things to do.
Can the italian economy thrive without tackling corruption and nepotism?
posted by asok at 9:51 AM on December 17, 2001

In the last elections in Italy, so the the story goes, a number of voters mailed in votes with slabs of prosciutto in the envelopes. The message to the government ? Go ahead and feast on this - you have helped yourselves to everything else already.
posted by Voyageman at 10:22 AM on December 17, 2001

Oh, those foolish Italians. They don't even know what mämmi is.. (It's a type of rye pudding, delicious with cream. First impressions are deceptive, it's edible:-)
posted by ikalliom at 11:25 AM on December 17, 2001

Edible is about all mämmi is. And even that is debatable. ;-)
posted by borgle at 12:10 PM on December 17, 2001

Il Santisimo Silvio was holding out on approval of Community-wide extradition law. He wanted things like money laundering, corruption, fraud to be excluded from the list of extraditable crimes. He later recanted and insisted that he was following the recommendation of his foreign minister.

About Italy deserving Berlusconi? All nations deserve those they elect, especially the people who conscientiously vote for such individuals and, worse, those who do not vote at all.
posted by mmarcos at 3:30 PM on December 17, 2001