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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Italy: Berlusconi's agendaSilvio Berlusconi is in power for the third time since the mid-1990s. Italians are moving to the right, and he represents the change. But the problems don't disappear with a magic wand. Italy, in general, is the worst economic performer in Europe, and the only real 'candidate' to drop out the Eurozone. Worse, unlike the last time when Berlusconi became prime minister back in 2001, the general mood in Italy now is gloomy. Nobody expect fast solutions; on the contrary, many expect a prolonged economic recession. Italy was famous for its multiparty near-anarchical situation during the Cold War. Since the early 1990s, it seemed it had entered the age of two-party system. Silvio Berlusconi represents the right pole of this system; together with some smaller nationalist and regionalist parties, he must be seen as the best hope for the big business and the economic development. In fact, if the past was to be a teacher, he wasn't exceptionally good at managing the Italian economy, neither during his first nor second term in office. In fact, by all standards, he did worse in terms of financial prudence than some of his left-wing political opponents. Berlusconi so far hasn't presented anything that would qualify him as the Italian version of Thatcher. Therefore it wasn't his political record but rather the fratricidal fights within the left that brought him back to power. The problems in Italy, either economic or financial or demographic, will persist. Some of them may get even worse. Italy is the worst economic performer in Europe, the 'sick person' that gets down on every international economic index. By most predictions, this and the next year will witness near zero growth. The strong Euro that was adopted mostly for reasons of national prestige in the late 1990s is a roadblock that brings several Italian industries near the point of extinction. The only reason why this economic slump isn't reflected in much higher official unemployment is the demographic crisis and the fact that hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrant workers, acting as economic buffer, aren't for the most part included in the official statistics. Without these immigrants, however, Italy would have to declare for the first time in its history that the population is shrinking. The economic and financial expectations for Italy, in general, are gloomy. This doesn't mean that Italy will stop being among the preferred destinations for other European or American retirees. Berlusconi will have his third chance to prove that the politicians still can overcome major hurdles. I predict that in the case of Italy he won't succeed, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
Italy country profile --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Italy.
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