http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/women-in-politics-berlusconi-lays-into-spains-too-pink-cabinet-812063.htmlCenturies-old prejudices were to the fore in the colourful Italian Prime Minister's remarks about his counterpart in Madrid
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has formed a government that is too pink," reads one. "That's something we cannot do... because there is a prevalence of men in politics and it isn't easy to find women who are qualified for government. Now he's asked for it. He'll have problems leading them."
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In 2005, he claimed that he had to "dust off playboy skills" to win over the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen. Good that he's not wasting energy on silly things like politics, those allegations of corruption or the stagnation of the Italian economy. And nor, incidentally, is his contemporary, Vladimir Putin, an eminently "qualified" man who has just left his wife for a 24 year-old rhythmic gymnast. (He'll have problems governing her, Mr Berlusconi might think.)
The Italian PM has been getting his knickers in a twist over Spanish politics. There, prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has appointed his cabinet, and (mamma mia!) half of them are women. There's the minister for public works and infrastructure, Magdalena Alvarez, who argued, "Many of us women would never belong to a government headed by Berlusconi". Then there's defence minister Carme Chacon, who is seven months pregnant and has proved her cojones by visiting Afghanistan – a fact that will surprise right-wing Spanish commentators who couldn't have imagined she had it in her.
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........Rwanda, which has 48.8 per cent women.
In her memoir House Music, former MP Oona King wrote: "One new MP was impressed to find that each MP's coat hanger had a pink ribbon attached – presumably to highlight Aids or breast cancer awareness – only to discover that they were for us to hang our swords on."
She also quotes another woman MP, elected in 1997, explaining why she would not stand again. "I got tired of the willy jousting," she said. Whatever Zapatero's girlie pink Spanish parliament gets up to, at least Spanish voters will be spared that horrible image.
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Berlusconi is a ninny.
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