Talk:Rocco Buttiglione

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]

Please rate the article and, if you wish, leave comments here regarding your assessment or the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

[edit] WP:BLP Removed Mexican election

I've removed the Mexican election information under the BLP rules:

==Role in the 2000 Presidential Election in Mexico== Buttiglione also played a role in the [[Mexican general election, 2000]], that ended 71 years of one-party rule by the [[Institutional Revolutionary Party]] (PRI) with the victory of [[Vicente Fox]] of the coalition led by the Right-liberal [[National Action Party]] (PAN), which, like Buttiglione’s party, is also a member of the [[Christian Democrat International]]. Mexican President [[Ernesto Zedillo]] (1994-2000) was to make the highlight of his term the signing of a free-trade agreement with the [[European Union]] (EU). However, the negotiations were not going well because of Mexico’s democratic deficit. However, Zedillo signed the [[Lisbon Protocol]] with the EU, committing Mexico to become democratic. However, he negotiated so that the agreement would be ratified by July 1st, the day before the presidential election. Buttiglione, whose eldest daughter Benedetta is married to a leading PAN official, Dr. Carlos Salazar, postponed the ratification of the EU agreement until after the July 2nd elections. Despite pressure from the Zedillo government, which sent three senior officials to visit him in Rome, the postponement remained. In addition, Buttiglione visited Mexico as an official [[electoral observer]] of the EU for the elections. Coincidentally, Buttiglione witnessed first hand what was the most serious attempt at [[fraud]] by the PRI regime discovered that day. On duty in the southern state of [[Campeche]] with two other electoral observers plus a Mexican opposition senator named [[Layda Sansores]], the daughter of a former PRI chairman, the group found a warehouse with “literally tons” of false ballots pre-marked for the ruling PRI party, meant to be transported to the polling places for [[ballot stuffing]]. Just then, a group of roughs apparently working for the local governor assaulted the observers, shattering their car’s windows while they made an escape. Fortuitously, this was being transmitted live through their mobile phone, which was connected to the loudspeakers at the press room in the PAN headquarters in [[Mexico City]], where an army of local and international press was assembled, as was visiting observer [[Jimmy Carter]], the former U.S. president. The Mexican Interior minister [[Diódoro Carrasco]] minutes later telephoned Buttiglione to assure him that it had been a misunderstanding, that the ballots were part of a “training drill.” Unconvinced, Buttiglione reiterated that the final passage of the EU agreement was in peril. Hours later, President Zedillo went on national television to declare Vicente Fox the winner of the election, earning the ire of the PRI and its candidate, the former secret police chief [[Francisco Labastida]], who was about to announce his own victory. Though Fox’s 7-point lead would have been difficult to revert, many PRI officials apparently believed that it would be like previous elections where the PRI would win regardless of the actual vote.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by JASpencer (talkcontribs) 19:34, 25 August 2006

[edit] More blp removal

I've removed this unsourced information as well:

Critics pointed out that proposing Buttiglione instead of the more prestigious [[Mario Monti]], who had built himself a good reputation in the previous two commissions (and who was initially put in that office by [[Silvio Berlusconi]] himself in 1994), was hardly a good bargain for society, and was mostly aimed at solving short-term political issues. This was also perceived as a lack of respect of the authority of the European Commission by some.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by JASpencer (talkcontribs) 19:36, 25 August 2006

[edit] Why the information was removed

I've been asked on my user page why I deleted quite a chunk of text from this article. Let me say first that I don't question the truth of this, just the fact that it is unsourced. Under the official policy for Biographies of living persons it says:

Articles about living persons require a degree of sensitivity and must adhere strictly to Wikipedia's content policies. Be very firm about high-quality references, particularly about details of personal lives. Unsourced or poorly sourced negative material about living persons should be removed immediately from both the article and the talk page. Responsibility for justifying controversial claims rests firmly on the shoulders of the person making the claim...

This is unsourced negative material and must be taken off. I recognise that it's frustrating, but Wikipedia has been embarassed more than once in this area so we're going to have to be strict here. Sorry.

JASpencer 19:41, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't see this material as entirely negative (after all we have President, who intentionally fixes an international agreement to boost his party's vote in an election but doesn't succeed in this; we have election fraud attempts by the ruling party etc.) but if, as the poster claimed on JAS talk page, sourcing can be easily provided, one wonders why he hasn't done so. So the deletion is entirely in order. Str1977 (smile back) 19:17, 27 November 2006 (UTC)