Policies of Silvio Berlusconi period because during the Cold War Italy had the strongest communist party in western Europe. Vladimir Putin has many times expressed his appreciation for the respect shown by the Italian Prime Minister towards the leadership of the Russian Federation. Silvio Berlusconi is among the most vocal supporters of closer ties between Russia and the European Union. In an article published to Italian media on 26 May 2002, he said that the next step in Russia's growing integration with the West should be EU membership. On 17 November 2005 he commented in regards to the prospect of such a membership that
Right of foreigners to vote by the Left and 2 centrist Union for French Democracy deputies, but it was blocked by the Senate. Polls taken in 2012 suggested that a majority of the public opinion was still opposed to it, even though Nicolas Sarkozy and a few other prominent right-wing politicians like Philippe Séguin (candidate to the mayorship of Paris in 2001) Gilles de Robien and Jean-Louis Borloo have stated publicly that they personally supported it, but that they would respect the overwhelming opposition to it within their own parties. In January 2006 left-wing senators again tried to put the bill to allow foreigners to