Guest Thinkers — December 30, 2010

The Obama of Italy

Nichi Vendola is one of the country’s most popular politicians, social-networking confident, adored by the young and might lead a leftish coalition in the next general election.

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A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Nichi Vendola is the governor of Apulia, heel of the peninsular boot, one of Italy’s poorest and most socially conservative regions. That it should elect (and re-elect) a governor with a background in the Rifondazione Comunista (RC, Communist Refoundation party) which he helped found in 1991, but is also openly gay, is counterintuitive, even if Vendola is a professed Catholic. He is now one of Italy’s most popular politicians and may lead a coalition of left and centre-left parties in the national elections of 2013. He is a charismatic scrapper, and has the Italian right worried.

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