"I have always regarded Gianfranco Fini, the leader of the Alleanza Nazionale, as a dismal opportunist. But judging by the language coming out of the mouth of the new Mayor of Rome, as of other Italian politicians, this will soon change. "
--John Laughland quoted below

 If Fini is a "dismal opportunist" then why would this "soon change" because of the "language coming out of the mouth of the new Mayor of Rome"? Isn't this new policy to swiftly expel immigrants convicted of crimes wildly popular, and therefore "opportunistic"? And besides, it is the policy declared by the new Mayor of Rome, not by Fini.

But I don't think Fini has a long history of being a "dismal opportunist. " Early on, he deliberately, and bravely, drove the fascist fascists, such as that cheap tart Alessandra Mussolini, out of the AN. He denounced the "racial laws" -- and not only on a visit to Israel. He has his faults -- given the crazed Italian system, having to present himself as being in the same electoral galere with the smiling crook Berlusconi can't have been easy -- but "dismal opportunism" does not appear to be one of them.

When I see Fini on "Porta a Porta" or other shows, he gives few signs of being a "dismal opportunist" but -- usually -- talks sense. In this respect, he reminds me of his ideological opposite, Enrico Berlinguer. One doesn't like what the words "Alleanza Nazionale" or the "Partito Communista" make one think of -- but both Fini now and Berlinguer then, were more than the parties with which they have been identified.