Italy’s political future uncertain as long queues blight polling day
● Hung parliament seen as likely with results to be announced today
Italians braved long lines and confusing ballots to vote yesterday in one of the most uncertain elections in years – one that could determine if the country succumbs to the far-right sentiment sweeping through Europe.
Some Italian polling stations faced ballot delivery problems and all had new time-consuming 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 and not wait until the last minute. Some polling stations remained closed in Palermo two hours into election day because the wrong ballots were delivered and 200,000 new ones had to be reprinted overnight. Similar ballot glitches were reported elsewhere, forcing the suspension of the vote in two towns in Alessandria.
More than 46 million people were eligible to vote, including Italians abroad who already mailed in their ballots. Polls closed at 10pm GMT, with consolidated results to be announced today.
Italy’s political scene is dominated by three main blocs – the centre-right coalition anchored by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, the ruling centre-left coalition anchored by the Democratic Party and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.
The campaign itself was marked by neo-fascist rhetoric and anti-migrant violence that culminated in a shooting spree last month against six Africans.
While the centre-right coalition that capitalised on Italy’s anti-migrant sentiment led the polls, analysts predicted the likeliest outcome of yesterday’s vote was a hung parliament.
With unemployment at 10.8 per cent and economic growth in the eurozone’s third-largest economy lagging behind the average, many Italians have all but given up hope for change. Polls indicated a third had not decided or were not even sure they would vote. “The situation is pretty bad,” voter Paolo Mercorillo from Ragusa, Sicily, said. “There aren’t candidates who are valid enough.”
The populist 5-Star Movement hoped to capitalise on such disgust, particularly among Italy’s youth. Polls indicated the grassroots movement launched in 2009 by comic Beppe Grillo would be the largest vote-getter among any single party.
But the 5-Stars weren’t expected to win enough to govern on their own and they have sworn off forming coalitions. However, the movement’s leader, 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio, recently suggested he would be open to talking with potential allies.
Analysts predicted the only coalition with a shot of reaching an absolute majority is the centre-right, which aside from Berlusconi’s Forza Italia includes the anti-migrant League and the nationalistic, neofascist-rooted Brothers of Italy party.
A topless Femen activist confronted Mr Berlusconi yesterday, jumping on a table as he was about to hand in his ballot and displaying “Berlusconi, you’ve expired” on her bare torso. Mr Berlusconi, 81, turned away and was escorted out. He cannot run for office because of a tax fraud conviction, but he has tapped European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, considered a pro-european moderate, as his pick if the centre-right is asked to form a government.
League leader Matteo Salvini is also gunning for the top job. Some pro-european analysts envisioned a possible “nightmare scenario” of an extremist alliance among the 5-Stars, the League and the 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,” he said.