Conjugation

This is one of a collection of doctored electoral posters that you can find at the la Repubblica site. A lot of them are funny in a fairly heavy-handed way, though you'll need Italian to appreciate them, but this one takes the piss out of Daniela Santanchè with a lighter touch, and nicely reflects not only the tendency of most politicians to behave in a schoolmarmish fashion, but also the sheer vacuity of political slogans.

Santanchè's the improbable candidate for premier of the latest far right party, La Destra, though whether it's farther right than Berlusconi's PdL is a moot point. The dwarfish buffoon's latest move is to select a newspaper tycoon, convicted fraud and unrepentant fascist called Giuseppe Ciarrapico as a candidate for the Senate. Why? Simple. Because he owns newspapers and that makes him valuable. Well, no one can accuse Berlusconi of trying to hide the shameful truth from us. It's a miracle he doesn't simply offer people brand new mobile phones if they vote for him, so long as they take a photo of the ballot paper with the X in the right box. Hang on a minute...