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Published on 2019-03-31 19:45:32 | words: 991

Time flies- and already in Piedmont (not just Turin) I saw billboards showing what amounts to a "pre-emptive campaign". What for? Well, Regional Elections- and European Parliament elections. As you can see on the left-hand side, my latest post here was on Febrary 14th- on purpose, as thereafter, beside my monthly videos on change published on YouTube (https://robertolofaro.com/ctr-channel), I decided for a while not to post. That "a while" was supposed to be a couple of weeks- hence, on March 2nd checked and shared how many had read my latest 20 posts- mainly on business 4.0 and politics (which, incidentally, are two sides of the same coin, in my view: more about this... on the Business 4.0 side of this blog). The numbers on the left-hand side? A marker of which subjects attracted more interest (for the time being, I do zilch advertisement or "traffic attraction"): might be useful should you be wondering what to scribble on or (if you campaigning) which keywords and hashtags seems to be more attractive. Beware: my readers are mainly from Italy, Germany, UK, USA, and then from Russia, China, India, Austria, Vizegrad countries, and... Australia plus New Zealand. So, before wasting resources playing "copycat", do your own homework with your own target audience. Moving from the "online media" to the "offline media" side, I must confess: over the latest few weeks, I think that the Brexit rhetoric fever affected more than a few, in Italy. Well, my British friends and connections could say that their own politicians lifted some pages from Italian melodrama- if they were to be singing, could be called... grand opera, but unfortunately not as good a "Nixon in China". As the UK government obtained an extension from March 29th until April 12th that produced literally zilch results on the Brexit roadmap definition, companies keep going with their activities to implement what they prepared for, and now also other EU Member States too are feeling the fatigue. So, the forthcoming elections (Regional in Piedmont, European all across the EU- certainly 27, maybe 28th, to be decided on April 10th) will have almost a typical Italian "last minute changes" whiff of "preparation". My foreign colleagues would remember the Y2K preparations in late 1999, or those for the Euro launch: we Italian are used to last minute changes- actually, even to retroactive regulatory changes. UK? Well, maybe what I saw on YouTube (the recordings of Brexit discussions in London) was just theatrics- otherwise, I would be worried... But also if you are worried, that does should not affect your roadmap-management: just waving your hands in the air and shouting never solved anything. Moreover, while a speech can be improvised, operational changes take time. You can read online by e.g. visiting the website (no, I have no connection with them, and this is not an endorsement). The overlapping with Brexit (including a potential hard Brexit on April 12th, to be confirmed on April 10th) makes these elections just more complex, both on a regional level (Piedmont has a high component of exports and imports- both on food and technology manufacturing, e.g. automotive and aeronautics), and on a national and supra-national level. Now, just imagine what would happen if UK were to be allowed to postpone again, as this would imply that UK too would have to hold European Parliament elections in May, and prepare to send Members after the end of May. Frankly, I think that most businesses already set up their mind, and shifted abroad whatever is time-sensitive in their supply chain (or prepared to do so, e.g. by having additional supply agreements effecting from April 1st). As you can understand, from my down-to-Earth observation point I see few "threads" within this forthcoming election season: EU-28 Italy, as a EU Member Piedmont and Turin Italy, as a country. Why the latter point? Brexit is showing that State-level diplomacy is as popular in France and Germany as in Italy, despite repeated claims that each one is working in the interest of all. As usual, I prefer to disclose my view, but try to separate opinion from analysis. Having four threads, implies that sometimes there will be articles covering just one of them. So, I think that the easiest way is... to use a "visual cue". Each article will have a banner and a left-hand side picture showing which thread it is referring to (yes, I took the pictures personally in my travels).

for articles focused on EU-28

for articles focused on Italy as an EU Member State

for articles focused on Piedmont and Italy

for articles focused on Italy by itself