ITALIANS SHIFT RIGHT, BUT HOW FAR?
VOTER UNCERTAINTY
Centre-right, populist parties neck and neck
ROME • Italians braved long lines and confusing ballots to vote Sunday in one of the most uncertain elections in years — one that will determine if the country will succumb to the populist, euroskeptic and far-right sentiment that has swept through Europe.
A centre-right coalition had a slight edge over an anti-establishment party, an exit poll by RAI state TV found.
The same poll found former premier Silvio Berlusconi duelling for the centreright’s leadership with antimigrant party leader Matteo Salvini; their respective Forza Italia and League parties were running nearly neckand-neck.
Whichever party dominates the coalition would be better poised to make a bid for the premiership should the coalition muster enough support in Parliament to support a government.
But no party alone was taking enough seats to govern alone, the exit poll by the Piepoli polling agency found.
The exit poll put the centre-right-coalition, which includes a smaller far-right party, with 33 per cent to 36 per cent of the vote, compared with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement’s 29.5 per cent to 32.5 per cent.
The centre-left coalition that currently governs Italy and led by the Democratic Party was lagging at 24.5 per cent to 27.5 per cent, according to the exit poll. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus three points.
The first projections based on an initial vote count were expected early Monday.
How the actual votes stack up could determine if Italy is swept up in the euroskeptic and far-right sentiment that has emerged in much of Europe.
The campaigning was marked by neo-fascist rhetoric and anti-migrant violence that culminated in a shooting spree last month that targeted African migrants and injured six.
But the 5-Star Movement’s principle of not allying with any party — its supporters consider themselves part of a non-party — could complicate deal-making to form a new government if Salvini’s populist-leaning League ends up seeking a partner that’s not Berlusconi’s more moderate party.
Hedging his bets, the 5-Stars’ candidate for premier, 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio, has shown some openness to potential partners.
With Salvini gunning for the premiership himself, some pro-European analysts envisioned a possible “nightmare scenario” of an extremist alliance among the 5-Stars, the League and the right-wing Brothers of Italy.
Steve Bannon, right-wing populist architect of Donald Trump’s White House campaign, was in Rome this weekend, cheering on the populists.
“I think if they create a coalition among all the populists it would be fantastic, it would terrify Brussels and pierce it in its heart,” Bannon was quoted as saying in Sunday’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.
With polls showing the centre-left trailing, Democratic leader Matteo Renzi and the current premier, Paolo Gentiloni, spent the final days of the campaign warning that the only way to guard against a turn to populists and extremists was to vote for the Democrats.
Some polling stations faced ballot delivery problems and all had new timeconsuming anti-fraud measures in place that created bottlenecks at many stations. As the day wore on, authorities in Milan and Rome urged voters to give themselves plenty of time to cast their ballots.
“You feel as if you have gone there prepared, but it’s not that clear,” Sister Vincenza complained as she cast her ballot on Rome’s Aventine hill before heading to Mass. More than 46 million people were eligible to vote, including Italians abroad who already mailed in their ballots.
With unemployment at 10.8 per cent and economic growth in the eurozone’s third-largest economy lagging the average, many Italians have all but given up hope for change. Polls indicated a third hadn’t decided or weren’t even sure they would vote.
“The situation is pretty bad,” said Paolo Mercorillo from Ragusa, Sicily, who said he would not even bother casting a ballot. “There aren’t candidates who are valid enough.”
The 5-Star Movement hoped to capitalize on such disgust, particularly among Italy’s young.