Italy votes in uncertain election
Silvio Berlusconi right-wing coalition leads opinion polls
Italians went to the polls on Sunday in one of the country’s most uncertain elections ever, with far-right and populist parties expected to make major gains and Silvio Berlusconi set to play a leading role.
Tensions between far-right and anti-fascist activists have marred a gloomy campaign dominated by fears about immigration and economic malaise.
“This election campaign has been pretty squalid including from the Democratic Party (PD), who I voted for,” 24-yearold barber Mirko Canali told AFP after casting his vote in Rome.
He said he knew many other young people who, fed up with high youth unemployment, had decided to support the antiestablishment Five Star Movement (M5S).
“They’re pissed off, can’t bear (PD leader Matteo) Renzi anymore and maybe they’re right,” Canali said.
Many Italians are cynical about election promises made by the country’s many squabbling parties and confused about what the outcome might be.
“We hope something will change because until now things have been very bad,” said Enzo Gallo, an elderly shopper at a street market in Milan.
“The middle class no longer exists. The poor are becoming poorer. The rich are becoming richer and there is no social justice,” he told AFP.
The result could be a stalemate between the M5S, threetime former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition and the ruling centerleft PD.
The last opinion polls before the vote put Berlusconi’s coalition in the lead with 37 percent, followed by the M5S with 28 percent and the center-left with 27 percent.
But under a new electoral law being tried out for the first time, any grouping would need at least 40 percent of the vote to command an overall majority of seats in both chambers of parliament.
A remarkable feature of the election has been the return to the limelight of 81-year-old Berlusconi, despite a political career overshadowed by sex scandals and legal woes.
The billionaire tycoon cannot himself hold office because of a tax fraud conviction but he has put forward European Parliament President Antonio Tajani as his prime ministerial nominee.