Italy’s election in final straight

– Italy’s rival political parties made a final bid for votes yesterday ahead of an election in which former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is gunning for a leading role in shaping any new government.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, the anti-immigration League party – allied with the 81-year-old Berlusconi – and the ruling centre-left Democratic Party held their final rallies before tomorrow’s election.

The campaign has been dominated by concerns about immigration and the far-right is expected to make major gains, while the populist Five Star Movement is also likely to score well.

“Tonight the era of opposition finishes, and the era of Five Star Movement government begins!” said leader Luigi Di Maio at their rally in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo yesterday.

The Five Star Movement’s fiery rhetoric has earned them followers among the many in Italy who feel alienated from politics.

“I did not vote for a long time but I started to follow the movement from the beginning,” says party activist Marco Becchi, who is 31 and from Rome. “They gave me hope, a reason to vote again and believe in this country.”

However despite their supporters’ enthusiasm the final polls in the election indicate that Berlusconi’s four-party right-wing alliance will win the most votes after his promises to expel 600 000 “irregular” migrants and slash taxes.

The 81-year-old Berlusconi, whose career has been shadowed by sex scandals and court cases, cannot himself hold elected office because of a fraud conviction. But on Thursday he unveiled European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, a close ally since the tycoon first entered politics in the early 1990s, as his choice for prime minister if he wins.

Berlusconi’s coalition on Thursday held its first and last joint campaign event in a bid to dispel rumours of severe divisions between Berlusconi and eurosceptic League leader Matteo Salvini.

Salvini has prime ministerial ambitions of his own and has indicated that he should receive the nomination if his party wins more votes than Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy).

“From Monday, the League will govern this country!”, Salvini said at his final campaign rally in Milan. –

Rome