Berlusconi"s bounce; Italy"s regional elections

Europe: Berlusconi"s bounce; Italy"s regional elections Author: Anonymous ProQuest document link Abstract: The regional elections on March 28th and 29th made a few things clear about today"s Italy. The most obvious is that it is not France. Defying many predictions, the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, did not receive a trouncing of the kind that Nicolas Sarkozy had suffered just a week earlier. Of the 13 regions that were at stake, Mr Berlusconi"s conservative People of Freedom (PdL) movement won six, a gain of four from the left. This was a strong performance by the prime minister. The opposition seemed to have everything going in its favour. One poll conducted two weeks before the election predicted that the left might hold all but one of the 11 regions it won in 2005. Yet this was still a disappointing result for the left. It lost four of its 11 governorships, and might have lost another, Puglia, had the right there held together. Links: Request this item through ILL, Check Full Text Finder for Full Text Full text: A surprisingly good result for Italy"s prime minister THE regional elections on March 28th and 29th made a few things clear about today"s Italy. The most obvious is that it is not France. Defying many predictions, the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, did not receive a trouncing of the kind that Nicolas Sarkozy had suffered just a week earlier. Of the 13 regions that were at stake, Mr Berlusconi"s conservative People of Freedom (PdL) movement won six, a gain of four from the left. This was a strong performance by the prime minister. The opposition seemed to have everything going in its favour: a string of sex scandals involving Mr Berlusconi last year; a display of extraordinary ineptitude by the PdL in late February when it failed to present its list of candidates on time in Lazio, the region that includes Rome; and an economic crisis that has seen GDP fall by 5.1% and destroyed more than 400,000 jobs. One poll conducted two weeks before the election predicted that the left might hold all but one of the 11 regions it won in 2005. The Democratic Party (PD), Italy"s main opposition group, claimed to have drawn nearer to the PdL in total votes, although the gap between the two biggest parties was still reckoned to be almost four percentage points, close to the figure in the 2008 general election. And the left could claim that its vote was eroded in at least one marginal region by the Five-Star Movement, an outfit led by Beppe Grillo, an anti-Berlusconi comedian and blogger. Mr Grillo"s party had a good first outing, winning 7% of the vote in the left"s traditional heartland of Emilia-Romagna. Yet this was still a disappointing result for the left. It lost four of its 11 governorships, and might have lost another, Puglia, had the right there held together. In Campania, the region around Naples, the left"s share of the vote plunged from 62% to 43%--a damning judgment on its ten years in charge of the local administration. The left also failed to keep hold of Lazio, despite fielding a strong candidate there: Emma Bonino, a former minister and European commissioner. What went wrong? The mainstream opposition seems still incapable of capitalising on the dissatisfaction felt towards the government by many voters, especially the young. Instead of backing the PD or the smaller, feistier Italy of Principles (IDV) movement, many voters stayed at home. Only 64% bothered to vote, almost eight points less than five years ago. And contrary to expectations, the right was not the only victim of the low turnout. The other explanation for the turnaround is even more disquieting for the left. Two weeks before the voting, Mr Berlusconi took to the hustings, and his personal charisma may have tilted the balance. The prime minister was 29 January 2017 Page 1 of 3 ProQuest not slow to draw conclusions, reportedly telling aides that in Lazio he had wrought a "sort of miracle". But there were two clouds on the horizon. First was the success of his ally, Umberto Bossi, whose populist and xenophobic Northern League won 13% of the vote, up from 8% at the general election, and took control of two northern regions, Veneto and Piedmont. Mr Bossi promptly announced that he would press for greater financial autonomy for the north as the price of his continued support for the government. This is unlikely to be the last demand he will make of the prime minister. The second cloud was the defeat in Venice of Mr Berlusconi"s bubbly public-administration minister, Renato Brunetta. Mr Brunetta had hoped to become mayor because he wanted to promote his ambitious plans to rescue the city from decline. Now he will not get the chance. Mr Berlusconi will doubtless see these results as a mandate for his continued attacks on the prosecutors and magistrates who have been pursuing him since before he entered politics 16 years ago. He may also feel emboldened to relaunch his plans for a presidential form of government. How far he can proceed down both these roads will now depend less on the opposition than on Mr Bossi.