On the 24th and 25th of February 2013 75% of Italian voters went to the polls to elect their new Parliament. The challenge was between Mr Pierluigi Bersani, leader of the centre-left alliance and Mr Angelino Alfano, leader of Mr Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right alliance…
Students’ forum: “In Italy we have a situation” by Lorenzo Viola, 5A PNI
The results of the Italian general elections were unexpected: during the political campaign the polls gave a confident victory to the centre-left coalition, composed by Democratic Party, Sel and Democratic Centre, with Mr Pierluigi Bersani as candidate Prime Minister, making for sure the decline of the centre-right coalition with (officially) Mr Angelino Alfano as candidate Prime Minister. Other parties, which took part in the elections, were Beppe Grillo ‘s Five Star Movement, With Monti for Italy, Civil Revolution – a leftwing party led by public prosecutor Antonio Ingroia – and Stop the Decline led by Mr Oscar Giannino.
The Italian elections were won by the centre-left coalition at the Chamber of Deputies (Italy’s lower chamber), where the centre-left coalition, Italy Common Good, received the majority bonus (premio di maggioranza), but it wasn’t successful in reaching the majority at the Senate. Now the Centre-Left needs an alliance with a party which has a big number of polls to rule.
The situation: the centre-right coalition and Five Star Movement obtained 30.7% and 23.8% at the Senate and 29.1 % and 25.5% at the Chamber; Mr Mario Monti’s Civic Movement reached about 10% in both chambers, while Mr Ingroia and Mr Giannino are out of Parliament.
Italy looks ungovernable and on these days Mr Bersani, the winning leader, is thinking about what to do. In my opinion, it is necessary to create a short term government and to approve a new electoral law to substitute Mr Calderoli’s “Porcellum” (“Crap” Law). The new government should also approve the reform bill about the conflict of interests and other measures,which were popular with all parties during the political campaign, such as the abolition of public financing and electoral reimbursement to the parties, the half-life of members of parliament and cuts to their salaries.
Students’ forum: “Looking at the future” by Elisabetta Pedrocco, 5A PNI.
The results of the Italian general elections stated a situation of complete political instability. In the Chamber of Deputies, the centre-left alliance, with 10,047,603 votes hardly defeated the centre-right with 9,923,109. However, on account of Mr Calderoli’s Electoral Law, also know as “Porcellum”, the winners (Italy. Common Good alliance) were given a majority bonus, which assured it a minimum of 320 parliamentary seats and the total majority. The party of Premier Mario Monti only got 10.6% of the votes. The Five Star Movement, a new party which was born as a protest against political corruption, is now the first party at the Chamber of Deputies, defeating the Democratic Party 25.6% to 25.4%.
The Senate
In the Senate no party obtained the 158 seats needed, leading Italy to a deadlock. The centre-left got 113 seats and the 31.6% of the votes; the centre-right received 116 seats and the 30.7% of the votes; Mr Mario Monti went through another disappointment, getting just 18 seats.
As long as Mr Bersani and Mr Grillo – or, more unlikely, Mr Bersani and Mr Berlusconi – don’t reach an agreement, Italy is ungovernable; and yet Grillo doesn’t seem to be willing to yield to Bersani’s requests. But who can blame him? In the past eighteen years, the Democratic Party and the People of Freedom have been ruling Italy alternately but, in my opinion, neither of them was capable of carrying out a good economic policy. Over this period, Italy’s per-capita GDP has dropped 4%, the debt ratio has increased by 11%, and taxes have increased to 43.4% from 41.2%. Both of them had several chances to govern Italy effectively, but they never managed to do so: is it ever going to change? Perhaps, Italy’s government needs some new personalities, some new ideas, in order to look more at the future and less at the present. According to me, Mr Matteo Renzi, the Mayor of Florence, might have been one of those; he might have won the general elections if Mr Bersani hadn’t tailored the primary-election’s rules to win them – lots of other parties, including The People of Freedom, wouldn’t have even showed up to the elections – but the Democratic Party considered Renzi as a threat to its power, because of his “liberal” ideas (some members of the party labelled Renzi’s ideas as “non centre-left”). How can Italians still believe in the huge lies of some politicians, even after a decade of falsehood?
Students’ forum: “My personal opinion” by Giulia Canal 2A
I think that it is greatly uncertain that the future Italian government will be able to work effectively because the Democratic Party, which has won 345 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, won’t get the support of Beppe Grillo’s 5 Star Movement, which won 109 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
Until now Mr Grillo, the spokesman of the Five Star Movement, has said that the party will not collaborate or form a coalition with PD but they will only vote each law according to their principles.
If PD and PDL formed a coalition and were able to collaborate for the good of the country, the government would be more stable.
What Italy needs is a government that can fight economic recession and unemployment by reducing taxes and developing Italian economy and exports. Another problem that the government should sort out is tax evasion which is very high especially in the south of the country.
Students’ forum: “Shocking!“ by Silvia Zamengo, 2A
The election results are final and they are shocking: two people out of ten voted for the party led by a comedian, Mr Beppe Grillo. This result has been interpreted as a protest against traditional politicians and Mr Monti’s austerity policy. Maybe these elections will force changes starting from more honesty and less waste of money.
However, Europe and America are very nervous about the Italian elections because there is no agreement between the winning parties and the Five-Star Movement.
Probably there will be “paralysis” in the new government. If the Italian government doesn’t take any decisions, the economy will fail and Italy will have to ask Europe for help. This situation particularly worries Germany, because they are the leading economic power in Europe and so they would have to help Italy first. The spread (up) and the stock markets (down) are showing international fears about Italy’s future.
Personally, I am not old enough to vote, but this situation is important for my future. If the main parties don’t agree, our economy will feel the bad effects: our national debt will increase; there will be no work for young people; more problems with the pensions for retired people; problems in the state schools and hospitals and problems in the local governing bodies (Comuni). I hope that they will find points of agreement for the good of the country!