John Peet – (Chair), Europe Editor, The Economist
Guglielmo Picchi - Forza Italia MP
(listen to his talk here - mp3, 19.7mb)
Sandro Gozi – Centre Left MP; Chairman Schengen Commission of the Italian Chamber of Deputies
(listen to his talk here - mp3, 17.8mb)
Raffaele Fantetti - candidate for the PdL
(Listen to his talk here - mp3, 17.9mb)
Dr Robert Leonardi - LSE, Jean Monnet Senior Lecturer in European Union Politics
(Listen to his talk here - mp3, 16.8mb)

Demos and the Italian think tank Vision are hosting a debate on the next Italian general election taking place in April 2008.

Is Italian politics all about drama, or is there more to it? To many it may seem confused and sometimes non-sensical. But commentators have argued that Italy is somehow a laboratory for politics – inventing and re-inventing itself. Its anomalous nature is one of the reasons why year after year, Italian politics continues to be of interest to political scientists and international audiences alike.

To the casual observer, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s famous words from Il Gattopardo still resonate: ‘everything seems to change, yet in fact everything stays the same’. And yet we are seeing change on both sides of the political spectrum. New faces, particularly young people and women, are starting to replace the old guard; the political programmes are pushing for change, despite resistance from the many lobby groups in the country. Perhaps change is indeed looming – as Galileo Galilei remarked while watching the slow movements of the chandelier in the Dome of Pisa, ‘eppur si muove’ (and yet it moves).

This high level seminar at Demos will seek to make sense of it all. What is new? And what will be the key, make-or-break issues? It will shed light on the new bipartisan political context in Italy ahead of the 13-14 April ballot and provide a commentary, a context and a platform for a new chapter in Italian politics.

For more information contact Alessandra Buonfino: alessandra.buonfino@demos.co.uk.