Uncertainty hangs heavy as Italy braces for elections
ROME: Italy was poised to hold its most important elections in a generation starting on Sunday, as financial markets warned an unclear outcome could plunge the eurozone’s third economy back into crisis.
Italians will cast their ballots as they grapple with the longest recession in two decades and several rounds of austerity cuts that have caused deep resentment and could favour a low turnout and a high number of protest votes.
The most likely outcome is a centre- left government led by Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani, a cigar-chomping former communist with a down-to-earth manner who now espouses broadly pro-market economic views.
But the result is by no means certain and whether Bersani will be able to form a stable coalition is in doubt.
Some fear there might have to be another election within months after a reform of a maddeningly complex electoral law.
With everything at stake, the campaign had been remarkably underwhelming, with few rallies and a lot of back-and-forth in television interviews that provided little or no detail on sometimes extravagant programme promises.
A case in point was Silvio Berlusconi’s promise to refund Italians an unpopular property tax levied by Prime Minister Mario Monti’s government in a letter that prompted some to queue up to claim their money back immediately.
European capitals and foreign investors will be watching closely as a return to Italy’s free-wheeling public finances could spell disaster for the eurozone.
“We believe that a risk exists that after the February 24 and 25 elections there may be a loss of momentum on important reforms to improve Italian growth prospects,” Standard & Poor’s ratings agency said in a report this week.
London-based Capital Economics warned that even with a stable governing majority “huge underlying economic problems suggest that it may only be a matter of time before concerns about the public finances begin to build again”.
“And a hung parliament might plunge Italy and the eurozone back into crisis rather sooner,” the independent economic research company said this week.
Polls open at 7am on Sunday and close at 7pm.
A second day of voting on Monday begins at 6am and ends at 2pm,
We believe that a risk exists that after the February 24 and 25 elections there may be a loss of momentum on important reforms to improve Italian growth prospects. Standard & Poor’s
after which preliminary results will begin to trickle through late Monday and into Tuesday.
The wild card in the election will be Beppe Grillo, a tousle-haired former comedian whose mix of invective and idealism appeals to protest voters fed up with corrupt politicians.
He has spoken to packed squares across Italy.
Bersani has said he will follow the course set by Monti, a former high- flying European commissioner roped in to replace the scandal-tainted Berlusconi who was forced to step down in November 2011.
But Bersani will come under immediate pressure to row back on austerity and do more to create jobs in an economy where an already record-high unemployment rate of 11.2 per cent masks far higher joblessness among women and young people. — AFP