Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Italian Election 2018

Parliamentary elections were held in Italy on March 4. The anti-establishment Five Star Movement placed first with 227 out of 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 112 out of 315 seats in the Senate, followed by the far-right League with 125 and 58 seats. The Atlantic Sentinel endorsed the center-left Democratic Party and center-right Forza Italia.

  • Italy’s Salvini Commits to Right-Wing Pact, Asks Same of Berlusconi

    Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League, has ruled out reneging on a right-wing pact and asked Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the mainstream conservatives, to do the same.

    Both parties get around 15 percent support in recent surveys. In combination with smaller right-wing parties, they might just reach the 40 percent needed to form a government.

    If they fall short, Salvini could theoretically team up with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which is polling at 26-28 percent.

    Salvini and the Five Stars share views on Europe and political reform, but they come at it from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

    Both have ruled out an alliance. (more…)

  • Consolidation on the Italian Left

    Both left-wing opponents and supporters of the former Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, are strengthening their ties ahead of parliamentary elections.

    • Dissidents from Renzi’s Democratic Party are due to join the far left in new party, led by Senate speaker Pietro Grasso.
    • Grasso has ruled out an alliance with the Democrats. He left the party in October.
    • The Progressive Camp, led by the former mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, is willing to do a deal with the Democrats provided they support a bill that would give citizenship to the children of immigrants who have spent at least five years in Italian schools. (more…)

  • Italian Parties Draw Battle Lines Ahead of Election

    Italian parties are drawing battle lines ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections:

    • Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi, who hopes to become prime minister for a second time, has ruled out another grand coalition with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. Polls suggest such a left-right pact may be the only alternative to a Euroskeptic government.
    • Small left-wing parties have ruled out an alliance with the Democrats. Senate speaker Pietro Grasso, who broke with Renzi in October, is planning to lead a new party, which could split the left-wing vote in favor of the right and the populist Five Star Movement.
    • Berlusconi is appealing a ban from public office, owing to a conviction for tax fraud, to the European Court of Human Rights, but it is unlikely to rule in time for him to stand for election.
    • The formerly separatist Northern League, which splits the right-wing vote with Berlusconi’s party, has said it would rather go into government with the Five Star Movement than Renzi.
    • The Five Stars have ruled out coalitions altogether. (more…)

  • Italy’s Small Left Rejects Pact, Making Defeat More Likely

    Italy’s smaller left-wing party has ruled out a pact with Matteo Renzi’s Democrats, making a populist or right-wing victory more likely in the upcoming election.

    Pier Luigi Bersani, a former Democratic Party leader who now belongs to the dissident Democrats and Progressives, has rejected Renzi’s overtures as “theatrics”. (more…)

  • Italy’s Leftists Open Door to Necessary Alliance

    Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of Italy’s dissident leftist party, has opened the door to a pact with the ruling Democrats, saying, “If they want to talk to us, they must know that they should come with proposals.”

    Bersani’s nemesis, Matteo Renzi, who toppled the older man in 2013, called for left-wing unity on Monday.

    “There is more harmony with people with whom we have been divided by arguments and controversies than with our traditional rivals,” he argued. (more…)

  • Salvini Would Pick Populists Over Center-Left for Coalition

    Italy’s Northern League would rather go into coalition with the populist Five Star Movement than the mainstream center-left, its leader, Matteo Salvini, has said.

    Speaking in Palermo on Monday, the conservative lamented that the Five Stars are “showing their incompetence where they govern.”

    But, he added, “if I were to call someone, I wouldn’t call Renzi or Alfano” — referring to Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi and Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, the leader of the small center-right Popular Alternative.

    Renzi’s Democrats are polling neck and neck with the Five Star Movement. Salvini’s Northern League is vying with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia to become the largest party on the right. Support for the Popular Alternative is in the single digits. (more…)

  • Italian Right Makes Pact for Prime Ministership

    Silvio Berlusconi
    Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi attends a conference of European conservative party leaders in Malta, March 30 (EPP)

    Italy’s two largest right-wing parties have agreed that whichever one of them receives the most votes in the upcoming election will provide the prime minister in a future coalition government.

    The separatist Northern League is currently outpolling former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s once-dominant Forza Italia. Together with the national-conservative Brothers of Italy, they would win around a third of the seats in parliament.

    The ruling center-left and the populist Five Star Movement would each win another third. (more…)

  • Italian Voting Reforms Could Have Little Impact on Balance Between Parties

    Italian parliament Rome
    Palazzo Montecitorio, seat of the Italian parliament, in Rome (Shutterstock)

    Voting reforms enacted by the Italian parliament this week could do little to make the country more governable, an analysis of Ipsos polling data by Corriere della Sera reveals. The three main political blocs would remain roughly equal in size.

    The new law allocates a third of the seats in the lower chamber on a first-past-the-post basis and removes the premium for the largest party.

    The expectation was that these changes would hurt the populist Five Star Movement and help the mainstream left and right.

    But it turns out the effect could be negligible. (more…)

  • Italian Lawmakers Back Electoral Reforms Which Hurt Populists

    Italian lawmakers have approved a reform of the voting system that could disadvantage the populist Five Star Movement in the next election.

    The reform allocates a third of the seats in parliament on a first-past-the-post basis, which should help the mainstream left- and right-wing parties.

    It also removes a premium for the largest party, which had been ruled unconstitutional.

    Combined, the changes could make it harder for the Five Stars to come to power, despite them polling neck and neck with the ruling center-left Democrats. (more…)

  • Berlusconi Comeback in Italy Looks Like a Long Shot

    Silvio Berlusconi
    Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi adjusts his tie during a conference of European conservative party leaders in Malta, March 30 (EPP)

    Silvio Berlusconi is eying a comeback in Italy — again.

    The eighty year-old former media tycoon, who was prime minister four times between 1994 and 2011, still leads Forza Italia, the country’s largest conservative opposition party.

    But it is only polling around 14 percent support. So many things need to happen to put Il Cavaliere back in power that it looks like a long shot:

    • The European Court of Human Rights needs to overturn Berlusconi’s ban from public office. Elections must be held before May 2018, but Berlusconi can’t run again until 2019 due to a conviction for tax fraud. He is appealing the verdict.
    • The ruling center-left Democratic Party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which are polling in first and second place, respectively, need to lose popularity.
    • So does the formerly separatist Northern League, which Matteo Salvini is transforming into a national right-wing populist force that is anti-euro and anti-immigration.
    • A new electoral law must have a high-enough threshold to prevent Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano’s center-right Popular Alternative from eating into Berlusconi’s margins — but not so high as to prevent the nationalist Brothers of Italy from winning seats. Berlusconi would need them for a majority. (more…)

  • Left-Wing Purists Split in Italy, Raise Risk of Five Star Victory

    Left-wing rebels quit Italy’s Democratic Party this weekend to start a new party with remnants of the old left, called the Democrats and Progressives.

    The group consists of leftwingers who are dissatisfied with the centrist leadership of Matteo Renzi, but they could end paving the way for an even less social democratic Italy.

    Renzi, who was prime minister until December, is expected to be reelected as Democratic Party head in April. He intends to call early elections and return to the premiership at some point in 2017.

    Enrico Rossi, the regional president of Tuscany, and Roberto Speranza, a lawmaker, could not stomach that prospect. They were supported in forming a new left-wing party by former prime minister Massimo D’Alema, a one-time communist, and Pier Luigi Bersani, Renzi’s left-wing predecessor as party secretary. (more…)

  • Court Ruling Makes Early Elections More Likely in Italy

    Italy’s Constitutional Court made early elections more likely on Wednesday, when it demanded changes in the electoral system that lawmakers ushered in last year.

    At the behest of the center-left prime minister, Matteo Renzi, the lower of house of parliament introduced a two-round system to elect its members, which would make it easier for any one party, or coalition of parties, to win a majority.

    But voters rejected an overhaul of the Senate that was meant to work in tandem with the lower-house reforms in a referendum last month. (more…)

  • Italy’s Renzi Plots Return to Power After Referendum Defeat

    Matteo Renzi
    Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi answers questions from reporters in Rome, December 10, 2015 (Palazzo Chigi)

    Matteo Renzi is being replaced as Italy’s prime minister this week, but the center-left party leader is already plotting his return to the Palazzo Chigi.

    President Sergio Mattarella asked Paolo Gentiloni, Renzi’s foreign minister, to form a government on Sunday, which is expected to stay in power until elections can be held.

    Italian media report that the outgoing prime minister is keen to call elections in early 2017 in order to stage a comeback. (more…)

  • Support for Early Elections Grows in Italy

    Support for early elections is growing Italy. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, the head of the junior ruling party Nuovo Centrodestra, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Tuesday he expects elections will be held in February.

    Alfano made his comments after speaking with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who announced his resignation on Monday.

    The opposition Five Star Movement and Northern League have both pressed for snap elections after Renzi lost a referendum on Sunday that was nominally about constitutional reforms. (more…)