UPDATED Renato Soru, the former head of the Internet provider Tiscali, recently failed to be re-elected as the president of the Italian island of Sardinia. Soru was soundly beaten by one Ugo Cappellacci, who just happens to be the son of Berlusconi’s accountant.
Renato Soru
Labelled as a failure during the election campaign by one Silvio Berlusconi, you might imagine that Soru virtually destroyed Italy’s jewel in the Mediterranean, however this is far from the truth.
Soru actually went about dragging Sardinia into the 21st century, and, unusually for an Italian politician, well, for most modern day politicians when I think about it, Soru dared to plan for the future. Wow, what adacity.
Funnily enough, it was probably Soru’s forward thinking, and actions which cost him the election. So, would you like to know just what ‘failure’ Soru achieved for Sardinia? Yes? Then read on.
Soru’s Sardinian Successes
Here is a summary of what Soru did while he was the president of Sardinia:
- A reduction over a 4 year period in Sardinia’s debt by over 2.4 billion Euro. When Soru began his presidency, the enormously indebted island spent 98% of its budget on public sector salaries and accommodation. Today this figure is 65%, and the remaining 33% has been devoted to social policy, health and education. Not a bad achievement for a failure. And this is the first.
- Soru reduced the number of official cars from 750 to 50. And probably achieved quite a saving.
- The number of posts in public institutions was cut by 1000 during Soru’s reign. Another considerable saving, albeit at the cost of quite a few jobs, but keep reading.
- Thanks to Soru’s administration’s efforts, income to the region of Sardinia grew in the 2007-2009 period by over 1.45 billion Euros. Actually, this sum was extricated from Italy’s government in Rome, which for reasons unknown, was withholding funding. Soru must have led quite an effective team of lawyers, negotiators and accountants.
Sardinia, Italy
When Soru was elected in 2004, a mere 24% of Sardinia boasted fast Internet connections. Now, in 2009, every single local authority area has access to high speed Internet, making Sardinia the first region in Italy to reach this level of coverage. Well, Soru did run Tiscali, so he knew something about the importance of the Internet in the 21st century. Still, the goal was 100% achieved. Compliments to Mr Soru.
- For the first time ever, Sardinia was able to assist those on the lowest incomes with the payment of residential rents. Some 6 million Euros was set aside by Renato Soru’s administration to finance this. Very good, but just the sort of thing one can expect from a non-Berlusconi boy. Soru was a commie! Except he wasn’t.
- Soru’s administration assisted over 1000 first time buyers to acquire a home. Nice Mr Soru.
- A closed plant in Arbatax was transformed into a centre for the construction of boats, something which included the creation of 700 jobs. Maybe Soru was planning to re-train the 1000 surplus public sector employees…
- Thanks to a regional law introduced by Soru, the cost of water to used for irrigation purposes fell by 65%. That’s a sizeable reduction.
And just in case you were wondering about the 1000 jobs which went to the wall:
- between 2004 and the second quarter of 2008, according to the Italian State Statistics Bureau, employment levels Sardinia went up by some 58,000 jobs. Not massive, but not at all bad for a loser.
- When Soru became president in 2004, Sardinia’s public health system was in dire straits. Not now. Indeed, today Sardinia is one of the few Italian regions to have balanced its health service budget. So Soru was quite a reasonable manager too.
There is more, plenty more. Soru protected Sardinia from excessive development, whilst managing to bring about great improvements in Sardinia’s infrastructure, including increasing the number of low cost flights to the island, which, of course, brought in greater income from tourists. The man also helped Sardina’s young train for the future.
With reference to the last achievement, I had noticed a substantial increase in the number of those from Sardinia taking masters at the Business School where I work. All down to Soru’s Stirling efforts, I was told after I asked one of the Sardinian students about this.
All in all, Soru had quite a track record.
You would imagine that any politician with a list of achievements as positive as that of Renato Soru’s would have been voted back into power tut suite. But no, in odd old Italy, Soru lost to the son of Berlusconi’s accountant. Sad, but true. This is Italy!
Article continues after the advertisement
Why did Soru Fail to Regain Power?
In a word, Berlusconi. Italy’s archetypal Italian used his media might to diminish the value of Soru’s name, and to brush Soru’s achievements under the carpet in a frenzy of Berlusconi friendly media coverage. Berlusconi also took it upon himself to do some Soru bashing directly.
The fact Sardinia’s own television channel and newspaper was run by a Berlusconi crony helped ensure that both TV and the island’s main paper totally ignored Soru both during his presidency and during the election campaign, whereas the press on mainland Italy did concede some coverage to Soru.
While this is only supposition, it is likely that Berlusconi’s media might managed to paint enough of a suitably one-sided picture of Soru. Comments were also publicly made about the fall in the value of Tiscali shares which, according to Berlusconi had lost a lot of money for a lot of people. Then there was the famous ‘Soru is a failure’ comment made by good old Silvio.
One could speculate that the people who lost their cherished publicly funded cars under Soru’s reign, who were quite possibly Berlusco allies, would have wasted no time in running around blackening Soru’s name – in the hope of getting their freebie cars back, no doubt.
Still, Soru’s defeat did come as a surprise to some Sardinians, and one young man I know of has vowed not to return to Sardinia while Berlusconi’s man is in power. Funnily enough this man was worried before the elections that Soru had not been able to communicate his successes effectively enough.
MINI UPDATE: 20th February, 2009
I chatted with another few Sardinians today. One did not like what was referred to as a ‘luxury tax‘ (mental note: must check this out) which had been introduced by Soru, but the other two were Soru fans. Once again, I heard that Soru was not that good at communicating- which is not a great sign in the face of opposition such as Italy’s arch-communicator, Silvio Berlusconi. But three out of four Sardinians, so far, have understood just what Soru has achieved for Sardinia, and are sad to see him go.
As you might have heard, Veltroni, the leader of Italy’s main opposition party, resigned over Soru’s failure to keep Sardinia for Italy’s moderate left. For the moment, this leaves Italy’s opposition in quite some disarray, and nobody knows just who will take the helm. It might be a good idea for Italy’s Partitio Democratico to promote Renato Soru, but not to leader, unless he manages to brush up his act so he can take on Berlusconi. This will be hard though, especially when you take into account Silvio Bs vice like grip on television, which is what the majority of Italians use to understand what’s cooking in Italy. Of course Italy’s politicians know this, and exploit it to the full, and to good effect.
There is a slim possibility that someone or other could cosy up to Rupert Murdoch and use Sky Italy to get his or her message across. Trouble is, there does not seem to be anyone on the radar screen in Italy who would be capable of this. It’s also doubtful that anyone would have even considered such a manoeuvre. Then there is the possibility that Silvio and Rupert make kiss and make up (they’ve had a little tiff), in which case Italy’s old guard left will stand about as much chance as a cat in hell of regaining power in this sunny peninsula.
For the moment though, Silvio Berlusconi has zero opposition, and he knows it. Wicked little voices tell me that Italy’s politicians all work in league with one another. Silly voices, no chance of that, is there?
End of mini-update
Dancing Developers
All is not bad though, for developers keen to build right, left and centre on this jewel of a Mediterranean island and who were piqued by Soru’s restrictive development policy, are now dancing with unbridled joy at the thought of transforming Sardinia into a cash cow. At least those working in the building trade will be happy.
At the end of the day though, it is not yet clear exactly how Berlusconi managed to obtain the upper hand. Whatever, Sardina has lost Soru, and this may well mean a slide back into the bad old days for this Italian island. And that would be a shame.
Oh, I forgot to mention: Soru’s predecessor was a Berlusco boy.
————————————————-
The facts contained in this post have been taken from a post, in Italian, on the Paturnio blog, so if you can read Italian, see this: ELEZIONI SARDEGNA: I SUCCESSI DI SORU COME GOVERNATORE – Sardinian Elections: Soru’s Successes as Governor.
About Alex Roe
Italy Chronicles Feed
Marco Cicu.
London.
A tutti i sardi e quelli che amano la sardegna.
Solo imbecili e stupidi possono essere così vanitosi da concordare
fedeltà ai paralogismi di BERLUSCONI, e alle menzogne spacciate
dagli oratori del suo partito.
La reatà e ciò che vedo con i miei occhi – e non ciò che vede lui.
La sardegne è come la descrisse, ” D H LAURENCE.”-
Questa terra non assomiglia a nessun altro luogo, la sardegna
è un’altra cosa – incantevole spazio intorno e distanza da
viaggiare, nulla di finito nulla di definito e la libertà stessa.
La sardegna non deve perdere la sua identita, che poi e la sua
diversità, non deve omologarsi a modeli di vita e culturali di tutti
i paesi dell’occidente.
Quindi..
credo necessario impedire BERLUSCONI con il suo esercito
abbiano il potere.
..Per raggiungere la vera libertà e necessario liberarsi da questa
illusione.
Il potere deve essere sempre limitato per avere una società
equilibrata – credo che, se l’esistenza dell’uomo ha uno scopo
questo è resistere al potere.
Tutti i leader politici che dicono di volere il bene del popolo
inevitabilmente diventa il piu grande TIRANNO.
[ Sono ATEO ma credo nel tradizionale carattere storico dei sardi ].
Difendo la causa rivoluzionaria di SORU per la semplice ragione,
che i sardi debbono liberare la sardegna e se stessi dal controllo
di un governo corroto come L’ITALIA.
è necessario capire che tutti i rivoluzionari oggi sanno, che non
c’è alcun altro modo per rovesciare questa arroganza BERLUSCONIANA
se non attraverso la lotta del popolo tutto.. e far si quest’isola
gioielo cotinui a essere la musa di artisti, intellettuali, pastori,
pescatori, artigiani, camerieri e manovali, libera per tutti.
maco cicu.
Sono una dei tre sardi su quattro che sanno benissimo cosa ha fatto renato soru per la sardegna ,e sono sicuramente una di quelle che ha sofferto enormemente perla scomfitta che è di un popolo intero, lasconfitta della giustizia, della legalità dell’etica della correttezza,un popolo di gente ignorante che ha creduto ai luoghi comuni, che ha comprato i suoi elettori con un piatto di lenticchie,di una televisioneasservita al potere( enon parlo solo di quella di quel minchione di zuncheddu) si sono venduti l’anima al diavolo che ha già comiciato a pretendere la sua pagae ogni tratto di costa violato darà lì a ricordarci che il 51%dei sardi èun minchione.noi cosa faremo?
la parte sana cercherà di ricostruire qualcosa di buono confidando nella buona sorte per un cambiamento radicale, marco cicu torni in sardegna ,non è più tempo di gettare la spugna ed andare in esilio.
Voglio dire una cosa a marco,io sono sempre stata contraria al computer negata pure perchè il mio computer era sempre a prendere polvere.Durante queste elezioni era bollente sono diventata un’artista ne mandare mail cercare informazioni. Queste elezioni saranno per noi disilluse dalla sinistra un forte vento che ci sosoingerà nella giusta direzione,”hanno estirpato molti papaveri rossi”, ma non possono ablire la primavera ‘anonimo sudamericano’.
For those who don’t read Italian, both Marco and Caterina are Sardinians who are sad to lose Soru.
Marco is particularly disgusted by Berlusconi’s victory and fears what will happen to the island now the developers will be given a virtually free hand.
Marco has already escaped from Sardinia and now resides in London, but Caterina is imploring him not to throw in the towel and to return to his beloved isle from his self imposed exile.
There is a certain desperation in Marco and Caterina’s words. It is almost as if they have lost hope.
To both of you, thanks for commenting,
Alex
25 febbraio 2009.
..il popolo sardo come detta la tradizione s’inchina ancora una volta al sovrano,che, facendo politica
utilizzando frasi retoriche esprimendo promesse inconsistenti per accapparrarsi il favore dell’
eletorato, facendo spesso leva su sentimenti irrazionali, in altri termini fare demogagia è l’
atività del politico che in vista del proprio favore, spinge il popolo a fare qualcosa contro il suo
stesso interesse.
.. platone come anche aristotele idicavano la demogagia come una forma di govero che deriva
dalla degenerazione della democrazia e che sarebbe preludio della tirannide o della anarchia.
BERLUSCONI E I SUOI SUDDITI,
non hanno mai pianto per la sardegna,– una lacrima vostra, non ha nel suo viaggio
raggiunto mai il suolo di questa terra,[ evaporando a mezz'aria prima che la inquinasse ]
.. che tanto nei secoli il suo suolo con il suo popolo, di questa linfa vitale ne è stata privata.
non esiste un sardo, dentro, fuori, in continente, all’estero e nel mondo tutto, che non
abbia versato una goccia di questa linfa vitale per la sua terra, per la propria famiglia,
parenti, amici, conoscenti e per il popolo tutto. ne sono certo, in quanto sono esperienze
vissute da migliaia di sardi sparsi nel mondo, che vive lavorando con il BLUES DENTRO.
.. non facciamoci ingannare da questa apparizione di un dio che scende dall’olimpo con
l’arte della metamorfisi, che si manifesta calpestando quest’isola paradiso con ai piedi
zoccoli inquinanti, dal corpo putrido avvizzito, e dalla bocca cariata in decomposizione,
che esalano sofismi dal puzzo soffocante di zolfo, interessati solamente al successo
e ai soldi, più che alla verità con ricorsi ingannevoli basati sulla semplice forza retorica
degli argomenti
[ RI FARE I SARDI ]
sono ATEO o forse e soltanto che bisogna credere in qualcosa.
ciao caterina, non mi sono ” autoesiliato” ma vivo a londra da tanti anni.
un saluto
marco.
I don’t know anything of what Soru has done for Sardinia; I live in another region. I know what his company, Tiscali, has done to me. I even had to ask the help of a lawyer, to get out as soon as possible from Tiscali’s internet contract.
Not to tell how their “help” center is instructed to treat their customers. Only one example: After 2 months trying to have the internet connection fixed, after several calls and mails, I eventually wrote a mail telling them to fix my internet connection otherwise I would have changed provider at the end of the contract. They did not fix anything: instead answered that I was free to leave.
I can only say: he deserves it (ben gli sta!)
Well, Luca, you are not a Tiscali fan! I had heard of others having problems with Tiscali, but then I’ve heard of people having problems with most of Italy’s main Internet providers, and have some personal experience too…
However Soru did seem to be doing a better job in Sardinia as a politician – and I have spoken to a number of Sardinians who were happy with his efforts. And Soru does have his supporters.
Alas it looks as though Sardinia will sink back into the bad old days of what is probably ‘backhander’ driven politics, and the island may risk being damaged by rampant development.
For the moment, though, I will remain a Soru fan.
Best,
Alex
“you are not a Tiscali fan”
Definitively not! At that time, people used to call it the 3K club, meaning that you paid for a 640Kbit connection and would get a 3K top speed instead.
“I’ve heard of people having problems with most of Italy’s main Internet providers”.
True.
Nice blog
Luca
ciao marco sono riuscita a ritrovare il sito e ho letto la tua risposta.concordo pienamente sututto perchè per me ,rientrata in sardegna dopo 22 anni fuori ,è sempre stata un punto di riferimento .forse saprai che sta rinascendo un a sardegna democratica che ,come dice bruno tognolini è di qualità piuttosto elevata.io son già troppo vecchia rispetto alle aspettative ma seguo con grande interesse questi giovani ,prima così distanti dalla politica ,ma così consapevoli del bene e dell’onestà.io cerco di fare del mio meglio.Lavorando nella scuola cerco di allevare ed educare i miei bambini all”onestà(non è mai troppo presto)molti miei ex alunni li ho trovati all’incontro che abbiamo avuto con renato soru poco prima delle elezioni quindi qualcosa di buono l’h0 fatto anch’io.quanto all’ateismo ,come si fa a credere in qualcosa quando la chiesa sbava davanti aberlusconi.mi hanno detto che prima o poi ci sarà la resa dei conti per tutte le ingiustizie.sto aspettando con ansia .un saluto dall’isola che non c’è.caterina
quel tizio che ce l’ha contro tiscali non ha la più pallida idea di cosa sia successo a me per uscire da telecom.mi arrivavano bollette bollenti,il mio computer ,spento si connetteva da solo,o meglio faceva le mie connessioni e io pagavo 200, 300 euro al mese per connessioni mai realizzate.io adesso sono su tiscali e uso la penna di vodafone per connettermi perchè la linea ADSL e di telecom e io francamente non mi fido.così per telecom altra linee con altri operatori .quello che ha perso la sardegna lo stiamo vedendo ,ci hanno messo in mutande e ,guarda caso a perderci sono stati quelli che hanno votato cappellacci,quindi quando dici “ben gli sta ,” non sai che dici un’emerita stronzata, tra l’ altro Soru nel periodo che ha governato non era neanche nel consiglio di amministra zione.gli impiegati incapaci ci sono ovunque
la sardegna sprofonda,la cultura anche,poveri noi ,sta per volare via anche la foglia di fico e i sardi dicono ancora “ha ragione silvio”:vogliono fare i puttanieri con le figlie degli altri,che vergogna :forse era goethe a dire,”persi gli averi niente è perduto, persa la casa qualcosa è perduto ,perso l’onore ,tutto è perduto” ecco noi abbiamo perso tutto
caterina,
Mi sa che le cose ‘dopo Soru’ non stiano andando tanto bene in Sardegna. Peccato, ma inevitabile.
Saluti,
Alex
Good article, Alec. I keep wondering what all this rage to develop is about when sales are so off and tourism so sunk.
Thanks Judith,
Tourism will pick up, which is why the developers want to build all over Sardinia. Mass tourism may ruin the island, but will probably make some people bundles of money.
Sad, but, I fear, true. Money tends to prove to have a much stronger attraction than keeping things looking nice…
Best,
Alex
The ignoble Capellacci has much more horror behind him than being the son of Berlusconi’s accountant and being the one who dishonourably defeated a good man like Renato Soru. He presided over the Sardinia Goldmine company who left poisons that are still leaking in our beautiful land, having first squeezed as much funds as they could from the Sardinia Regional Government. Not enough for this greedy, servile man to associate with delinquents and mafia elements, he was recorded saying that the problem of Sardinia were the Sardinians themselves. No. Only those Sardinians that were misguided enough to vote for this little man, this serf, instead than keeping Soru, who is a King in comparison. Forza Paris: we can get up again!