| Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Powered by www.blog.co.uk
Italy's supreme court has now confirmed that the centre-left won the elections. So far, so good. And what are the centre-left doing? Launching a job-creation programme to tackle Italy's massive unemployment? Cracking down on the Mafia? No... they are squabbling about who is going to be President of the Camera (Chamber of Deputies). It's between Massimo d'Alema of the Left Democrats and Fausto Bertinotti of Rifondazione Comunista.
Well, barring disasters, it seems that Berlusconi has just been squeezed out of office here, though it was hardly a convincing win for Prodi. Rifondazione did well compared to the rest of the centre-left coalition. Still, there was not exactly a party mood in the local party office last night. Someone said it was a meagre victory, which was about right. The exit polls put the left well ahead, and I had visions of re-living 1992, but fortunately it didn’t end quite so badly. Here are some of the figures:
Turn-out was very high – 83.6%, up from 81.4% last time round.
Rifondazione was the only bit of the left coalition to significantly increase its percentage from 2001. It now has 27 out of 317 senate seats (up from 3) and 41 out of 618 in the camera (lower house), up from 11. However, it is hard to make direct comparisons because the electoral system has changed to become more proportional (Berlusconi hoped this would help him win).
Here are some of the key numbers for the centre-left:
Senate:
Left Democrats (ex-CP, now social democrats) 17.5%
Margherita (ex-Christian Democrats, Catholic liberals) 10.7%
Rifondazione Comunista 7.4% (5% in 2001)
Comunisti Italiani plus Greens plus Consumers in a joint list to get over the threshold (yes, really) 4.2%
Camera:
Ulivo (Left Democrats plus Margherita) 31.3% (30.1% in 2001)
Rifondazione Comunista 5.8% (5% in 2001)
Rosa nel pugno (secularists, liberals) 2.6%
Comunisti Italiani 2.3% (the split from Rifondazione which stayed in Prodi’s last govt when Rifondazione left)
How to explain the difference in Rifondazione’s vote for the Senate and Camera? Several possibilities. One: the franchise for the Camera is over-18s, for the Senate over-25s: the Communist vote is ageing. Two: ticket-splitting – people vote for Prodi’s coalition in the Camera then for Rifondazione in the Senate as a ‘conscience’ (Rifondazione made a big deal of the idea that a vote for them was a guarantee that Prodi would deliver a left-ish programme). Three: the united ‘Ulivo’ party made up of the Left Democrats and Margherita is more popular with voters than the two parties standing separately. Four: the Comunisti Italiani were on a joint list with the Greens, making Rifondazione the only straightforward Communist option for the Senate.
Well, barring disasters, it seems that Berlusconi has just been squeezed out of office here, though it was hardly a convincing win for Prodi. Rifondazione did well compared to the rest of the centre-left coalition. Still, there was not exactly a party mood in the local party office last night. Someone said it was a mean victory, which was about right. The exit polls put the left well ahead, and I had visions of re-living 1992, but fortunately it didn’t end quite so badly. Here are some of the figures:
Turn-out was very high – 83.6%, up from 81.4% last time round.
Rifondazione was the only bit of the left coalition to significantly increase its percentage from 2001. It now has 27 out of 317 senate seats (up from 3) and 41 out of 618 in the camera (lower house), up from 11. However, it is hard to make direct comparisons because the electoral system has changed to become more proportional (Berlusconi hoped this would help him win).
Here are some of the key numbers for the centre-left:
Senate:
Left Democrats (ex-CP, now social democrats) 17.5%
Margherita (ex-Christian Democrats, Catholic liberals) 10.7%
Rifondazione Comunista 7.4% (5% in 2001)
Comunisti Italiani plus Greens plus Consumers in a joint list to get over the threshold (yes, really) 4.2%
Camera:
Ulivo (Left Democrats plus Margherita) 31.3% (30.1% in 2001)
Rifondazione Comunista 5.8% (5% in 2001)
Rosa nel pugno (secularists, liberals) 2.6%
Comunisti Italiani 2.3% (the split from Rifondazione which stayed in Prodi’s last govt when Rifondazione left)
How to explain the difference in Rifondazione’s vote for the Senate and Camera? Several possibilities. One: the franchise for the Camera is over-18s, for the Senate over-25s: the Communist vote is ageing. Two: ticket-splitting – people vote for Prodi’s coalition in the Camera then for Rifondazione in the Senate as a ‘conscience’ (Rifondazione made a big deal of the idea that a vote for them was a guarantee that Prodi would deliver a left-ish programme). Three: the united ‘Ulivo’ party made up of the Left Democrats and Margherita is more popular with voters than the two parties standing separately. Four: the Comunisti Italiani were on a joint list with the Greens, making Rifondazione the only straightforward Communist option for the Senate.
It is election night here. The exit polls showed a clear win for the centre-left coalition L'Unione over Berlusconi's Casa delle Liberta. But after a few hours the right began to catch up and are now ahead in terms of Senate seats (though behind on votes). Having sat through the 1992 election in Britain I have a strange sense of deja vu.
Saturday’s anti-war demo in Rome was well-attended despite the right-wing calls to stay away. After an anti-fascist protest in Milan the weekend before had finished in fighting between police and anarchists, the likes of Prodi and the DS had decided to stay away. That’s despite the fact that the L’Unione policy is to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq. The biggest trade union, CGIL, also refused to support the march. There's been a newspaper strike today in Italy so I haven't seen the figures for how many people marched, but I would say at least tens of thousands.
This was the banner at the front of the demo: “Peace First – Troops Out Now”.
This was Rifondazione leader Fausto Bertinotti at the start of the demo, looking serious.
Peace and red flags were the order of the day.
Despite CGIL’s decision not to back the march, the engineering workers’ union FIOM, which is linked to CGIL, did support it.
.
There was a sizeable Kurdish contingent.
These are American demonstrators just in front of the Colosseum.
