Mr. Berlusconi began plastering Italy with his face months ago. Benign and with hair added, he now beams across squares and bridges, along roads and railway lines. The slogans are basic: Meno tasse per tutti (Lower taxes for everybody), or Citta piu sicu,re (Safer cities). Not so the costs: one poster in prime positions across Italy's main cities costs a billion lire ($480,000). Mr. Berlusconi can afford it. According to Mr. Rutelli, the right plans to spend 200 billion lire (30 billion is its own figure) in the campaign; the left, he moans, cannot raise even 20 billion.
Soon, though, voters started to edit the posters on the Internet. They began dressing up Mr. Berlusconi as Superman, a gladiator, the pope. Meno tasse per tutti became Meno tasse per Totti (Francesco Totti is AC Roma's best-loved football player). A long-haired, hippie-looking candidate pledged to "help the bald", while Citta piu sicu, re came with a picture of Mr. Berlusconi, who faces tax and other problems in court, behind bars. The man credited with starting the craze, a 38-year-old interpreter called Max Bemardini, who says he is a communist, has become a celebrity. His website had ?in-plus visits in 100 days.
At this point, Mr. Berlusconi decided to beat the mockers by joining them. On his Forza Italia movement's website, he launched a competition for the funniest poster, and promised to deliver the award in person. He may even have to award it to himself for his latest poster, whose slogan is, "A working-class president to change Italy": Mr. Berlusconi is one of the country's richest men. On the left, Mr. Rutelli decided to plunge into his (half-empty) campaign coffers to have mega posters of his own.
36. Italy is turning into Saddam Hussein’s Iraq
A.just for its election.
B.for its country’s freedom.