Italian general election, 2006
Encyclopedia
In the Italian general election, 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy
held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister
Silvio Berlusconi
, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms
, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi
, leader of the center-left The Union
.
Initial exit polls suggested a victory for Prodi, but the results narrowed as the count progressed. On April 11, Prodi declared victory; Berlusconi never conceded defeat explicitly but this is not required by the Italian law.
Preliminary results showed The Union leading the House of Freedoms in the Chamber of Deputies
, with 340 seats to 277, thanks to obtaining a majority bonus (actual votes were distributed 49.81% to 49.74%). One more seat is allied with the Union (Valle d'Aosta) and 7 more seats in the foreign constituency. The House of Freedoms had secured a slight majority of Senate seats elected within Italy (155 seats to 154), but The Union won 4 of the 6 seats allocated to voters outside Italy, giving them control of both chambers.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/04/11/italy.elections/index.html On April 19, Italy's court of last resort (Corte di Cassazione) ruled that Prodi had indeed won the election, winning control of the Chamber of Deputies by only 24,755 votes out of more than 38 million votes cast, and winning 158 seats in the Senate to 156 for Berlusconi's coalition. Even so, Berlusconi refused to concede defeat, claiming unproven fraud.
Recent developments, including publishing of a controversial documentary film
about alleged frauds in the ballot counting during the election, brought on December 2006 the Electoral Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies to request for a recount of all ballot papers, starting from a 10% sample.
(Casa delle Libertà), was the previous government coalition led by the former Prime Minister of Italy
Silvio Berlusconi
and was mainly made up of the same parties as in the previous general election. This is the coalition of parties for the election:
The New Italian Socialist Party, a small party composed of former members of the late Italian Socialist Party
and led by former 1980s and 1990s minister Gianni De Michelis
, which is part of the Berlusconi III government with a minister without portfolio
, suffered a split on its last national congress (October 21–October 23, 2005), with a left-wing, led by Bobo Craxi, son of the late Bettino Craxi
, who decided to immediately leave the House of Freedoms and unilaterally elected Craxi himself as new party leader. The NPSI will take part in the election in a joint list with the centrist Christian Democracy for Autonomies.
As for the candidate who led the coalition into the general election, Berlusconi experienced an actual loss of support from Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), who asked for a return of the electoral law to a proportional system (which would most likely favour them) and some sort of primary election to formally decide the next candidate to prime-ministership. When the party-list representation system was restored (albeit a form very different from the UDC proposal) and Marco Follini, critic of several reforms imposed by Berlusconi on the whole coalition, resigned from the UDC secretarship, the possibility of a change of leadership inside the House of Freedoms was significantly reduced. On October 27, Lorenzo Cesa
was appointed as new UDC secretary, becoming the successor of Follini himself. The coalition announced a "three-forwards" system, meaning that the prime minister candidate will be the political leader, among Casini, Fini and Berlusconi, whose party will win most votes. Since Berlusconi's party was known to be by far the largest one, it was understood that Berlusconi was the actual candidate.
One event which caused heavy criticism from the opposition was the support, sought and obtained by Berlusconi, of a number of fascist
movements and parties, notably the Social Alternative of Alessandra Mussolini
, granddaughter of the former dictator of Italy, and Luca Romagnoli
, an holocaust denier
. Supporters of Berlusconi have responded to this pointing to the presence in the Union of two communist parties, which had among their candidates anarchist activist Francesco Caruso
and a transgender
, Vladimir Luxuria
.
, was led for the election by former Prime Minister and former President of the European Commission
Romano Prodi
, who had already beaten Berlusconi in the 1996 elections
. Prodi's candidacy was confirmed by a national primary election
, held on October 16, 2005 (for more information about the primary election, see the related paragraph below).
Moreover, the former coalition was enlarged in order to cover the whole ensemble of Italian centre-left to left-wing factions. The parties in the alliance are:
The Rose in the Fist
was officially founded on September 25, 2005, when the Italian Radicals
, a historical libertarian
, laicist and socially progressive party of Italy, officially declared an alliance with the Italian Democratic Socialists
in the form of a confederation, with explicit references to the politics of Tony Blair
, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
and Loris Fortuna
, an Italian politician in the 1970s who became famous for his laicist proposals, and is considered the father of the law on divorce. This confederation immediately caused a stir for not having signed the political platform of The Union, being the only center-left party not to do that; the Rose in the Fist, represented by Emma Bonino
in the final platform meeting, in fact protested about insufficient mentions of social issues such as legalization of civil union
s. The Socialists, led by Bobo Craxi who were the breakaway left wing of the New Italian Socialist Party which emerged the House of Freedoms, was supposed to join the Rose in the Fist confederation, but instead reorganised itself in a single party, which however failed to get over the 2% of national votes. However, Bobo Craxi was able to enter in the Lower House, as he was one of the leading candidates for The Olive Tree in Lombardy.
The Union is also supported by a number of minor parties and movements, although of those only the Pensioners' Party
has any elected representation (1 Member of European Parliament).
Two televised debates were set by the Parliamentary Committee of Inspection on RAI
, which had the goal of ensuring equal treatment for the two political sides. However, Prodi contested the deliberation of this Committee, which allowed Berlusconi to also hold a final televised speech after the debates as Prime Minister. Prodi refused to participate in any debate until this final speech had been cancelled. The issue was resolved on March 3, when Berlusconi finally agreed to cancel the final speech.
The debates lasted about 90 minutes each, did not include commercial
s, and had a preset time for each answer and each reply, and the obligation to film only the speaking person at any given time. The candidates were also forbidden to bring any kind of notes with them, even though they could write some down during the debate, and no audience was allowed to participate. This set of rules was very unusual in Italian political talk shows, where politicians usually interrupt each other, talk simultaneously and for as long as they can hold the word. Questions to candidates are posted by two journalists from the Italian press: the moderator himself was not allowed to ask any questions, but only to present the debate and guarantee respect of the rules. At the end of the debates, the candidates are allowed to make a final statement of 3 minutes.
The first televised debate, held on March 14, was broadcast live on Rai Uno
, and moderated by Clemente Mimun, Director of TG1
. It featured questions from journalists Roberto Napoletano of Il Messaggero
and Marcello Sorgi of La Stampa
. It was watched by over 16 million people, a record for a political TV show
. During his final speech, Berlusconi, who often overran his intervention times, attacked the rules of the debate, in his opinion too strict, whereas Prodi praised them, pointing out the fact that they are used in US debates this way, as well. Some observers commented that Berlusconi had been disappointing in this debate, scribbling nervously while he was talking and at a point confusing Iran
and Iraq
; while all politicians claimed their candidate had won the debate, it was generally agreed that Berlusconi had not dealt a strong blow to Prodi.
The second debate, moderated by Bruno Vespa
, an Italian journalist and anchorman, was held on April 3 and broadcast live on Rai Uno, featuring questions from Napoletano and Sorgi (same journalists of the first debate). It was dominated by the economic proposals and was more intense, with much stronger tones between Prodi and Berlusconi. In this debate, Berlusconi had the possibility of making the final 3-minute statement: in this time, he delivered his "surprise blow" proposing the abolition of ICI, a local tax on real estate
whose money belongs to local city councils.
Later on, it turned out that Berlusconi's proposal was not completely agreed upon in the rest of the House of Freedoms, and Prodi, immediately after the debate, noted "about ICI, I want to know what the centre-right mayors think about".
refused to sign it in, because it did not explicitly include some issues, such as civil union
s and gay rights. The platform has been criticized by the House of Freedoms because of its 281 page length.
A reduced, more readable, version of the official political platform has been released since then by the coalition, in order to answer the critics from the centre-right coalition.
The main points of the centre-left platform were:
The main points of the centre-right platform were:
, a U.S. research firm, were commissioned by Berlusconi because he claimed the national surveys to be politically biased.
According to the Italian law, it is forbidden to publish any opinion polling in the 15 days which precede the election (March 25, in this case).
The final result (49.8% Union vs 49.7% House of Freedoms) was about 3% different from almost all polls (including all the exit polls) reducing the expected 5% gap between the coalition to a difference of about 0.1%. On Italian TV some tried to explain this discrepancy claiming that some House of Freedoms voters were ashamed to admit that they planned to vote for them. Others claimed that the last week of electoral campaign, dominated by Berlusconi's proposal of cutting ICI and by the media's insistence on the alleged new taxes advocated by The Union, persuaded a large number of Italians, usually uninterested to politics, to cast a vote for the House of Freedoms.
In July 2005, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
asked current PM Silvio Berlusconi
about the opportunity for an early election for the first half of April 2006, in order to prevent a big political deadlock (the mandate of President Ciampi himself would be over in May 2006 and a newly-elected government was not likely be in office within three weeks). Berlusconi however refused the deal, claiming he would stay in office until the due date of his term.
But, on October 18, Berlusconi announced that the election would be held on April 9, 2006, eventually following the suggestions from President Ciampi. Berlusconi also announced that the next administrative elections (which include the mayoral elections of Rome
, Milan
and Naples
) will be held in May, the day after Romano Prodi had asked to vote for all elections the same day, in April. Berlusconi stated this was due to his fear that good government by center-left mayors could favour the center-left in the general election. Critics say holding all elections in the same day could save millions of euros in public expenditure.
, means equal treatment; it is a special law which guarantees all the main majority and opposition political forces to have equal media treatment, in terms of times and spaces, and, furthermore, denies political commercials for TV and radio outside some dedicated transmissions.
Berlusconi has declared several times that he wants the law to be either repealed or at least changed in a much lighter way. Critics and opponents say that Berlusconi's willingness to have the law abolished are dictated by his almost complete control of 6 channels (his family holding company controls Mediaset
, which broadcasts three national private channels, and controls indirectly, as Head of Government, the three RAI
public broadcasting channels).
In his latter government years, Berlusconi attempted to accelerate his desires; however UDC, who is part of the Berlusconi government, declared several times its opposition to either abolish or change the law, with secretary Lorenzo Cesa, after his election as party leader, who pointed out his refusal of any change of the law.
The law however did not prevent Berlusconi from using his TV channels of Mediaset
, and even SMS via cellphones, to manage to get more votes. During the election day Berlusconi's channels aired a lot of messages to remind people who were watching his TV channels to use their vote together with spots saying "Mediaset gives you everything without asking for anything in return". While these spots didn't break the par condicio law, it was broken by some of the journalists (especially Emilio Fede
, well-known for his political ideas) of the Berlusconi's channels and in March and April 2006, the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni
fined twice his privately owned channels for violation of the par condicio law, the biggest fine to date (300,000 €).
, Berlusconi signed in a TV show a Contract with Italians, where he promised, if elected, to fulfil at least four of the five points included in it. One of the main points regarded a tax break for income levels, whereas The Olive Tree policy was essentially to maintain a progressive taxation system.
The generalised tax break was somewhat enacted in 2005, and included in the last Financial Measure. The opposition blamed Berlusconi for doing the tax break in one of the worst economic periods for the country, with no coverage for the resulting debt, and accused Berlusconi's allies of accepting the tax break in return for better power positions; during the negotiations for the Financial Measure, the Alleanza Nazionale leader, and, at that date, vice-premier, Gianfranco Fini
, was moved to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and UDC leader Marco Follini, who had no ministerial role before that date, was chosen to replace Fini.
In the electoral campaign, Berlusconi and the whole centre-right coalition almost daily criticized the left, alleging that Prodi would increase taxes if elected, pointing out the centre-left proposal to have a 5% cut of the tax wedge
.
Taxes have become the main topic for the end of the electoral campaign, with Berlusconi citing Prodi would reintroduce the inheritance tax, abrogated in 2001, and increase the current tax system on treasury bills (BOT, CCT) and would tax also the stockmarket tradings. Prodi pointed out the fact that he would reintroduce the inheritance tax only for the very rich people, and would not increase the taxes on treasury bills.
in the European Parliament Martin Schulz
, during a talk, a role of kapo (concentration-camp inmate appointed as supervisor) for a hypothetical movie, claiming he would be "perfect" for the role. When Berlusconi entered the Strasburg Parliament he was welcomed with posters in various languages addressing him as "Godfather of Europe", explicitly referring to Francis Ford Coppola
's cinematic series about the mafia
, without respecting his high institutional role as EU Council president. Afterwards Mr Berlusconi exploded at the insisting questions of MP Schulz. This diplomatic incident cooled down the Italy-Germany foreign relations for a period. Eventually a phone call between the Prime Minister and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
put an end to the dispute.
In 2001 Berlusconi declared Western civilization to be "superior to Islam", which he was very much criticized for.
But in particular the international English-speaking press, such as Financial Times
and Newsweek
, criticized Berlusconi's work. Several times, before and after his election as prime minister, the weekly worldwide magazine The Economist
accused Berlusconi of being essentially "unfit to lead Italy".
Forty-two percent of eligible voters abroad participated in the elections. Prodi's L’Unione managed to secure 4 of the 6 Senate seats, while Berlusconi's Forza Italia and an Independent candidate each gained 1 of the remaining 2 seats, aiding Prodi in gaining a majority in the Italian Senate. In the House of Deputies, 7 seats went to l'Unione, 4 to Berlusconi's coalition, and one to an Independent candidate. In North America, candidates from Toronto and Chicago were elected to the House of Deputies while the candidate from New York City was elected to the Senate.
Berlusconi has claimed, in challenging the election results, that there were irregularities in the vote abroad. The result of the vote may have been influenced by the fact that numerous right-wing parties put forward candidates in the constituencies abroad, while there were few left-wing candidates, thereby splitting the right-wing vote. This tactical error may be explained through the novelty of the vote abroad.
right to vote in all referendums and elections being held in Italy (provided they had registered their residence abroad with their relevant consulate). However until late 2001, any citizen wishing to vote, was required to physically return to the city or town in Italy where he or she was registered on the electoral roll. The only exception to this rule was for the Italian elections to the european parliament
in which voters could cast their ballot at their nearest consulate but only if they had their residence in one of the other 14 EU countries.
Until 2001 the Italian state offered citizens living abroad a free return train journey to their home town in Italy in order to vote, however the portion of the train journey that was free of charge was only on Italian soil. Any costs incurred in getting from their place of residence abroad to the Italian border had to be covered by the citizen wanting to vote, therefore a free return train journey was hardly an incentive
for the large Italian communities living as far away as in the United States
, Argentina
or Australia
. For this reason very few Italians abroad made use of this right to vote, unless they lived in cities and towns that bordered to Italy such as in Germany, Switzerland, France and Austria. Various Italian minorities living abroad (notably in the United States) protested frequently at this lack of political representation especially if they paid taxes on property owned in Italy.
After numerous years of petitioning and fierce debate, the Italian government, in late 2001, finally passed a law allowing Italian citizens living abroad to vote in elections in Italy by postal ballot. The change is the result of a thirty-year struggle to recognize the rights and special interests of Italians who have migrated abroad but retain their Italian identity.
Italians wishing to excise this right must first register their residence abroad with their relevant consulate.
's constructive vote of no confidence
); it puts an end to the necessity of a law being approved by both Chambers, attributing a clear competence to each of them; it gives more power to the regions, with several references to devolution
, the main programme point of the autonomist government party Northern League
, still guaranteeing, according to the new version of article 127, the national interest, which had been cancelled by the previous reform of the left.
The Italian Constitution prescribes that both chambers must accept every modification to the constitution twice within three months, and, if it passes with less than two thirds of the votes at the second scrutiny, a national referendum
on the modification can be held (the reform will make it always possible to call such a referendum). Since the centre-left opposition opposed to the new constitutional reform, describing it as "dangerous", "separatist", and "antidemocratic", the first procedural step, that is, the approval by the Chamber of Deputies, was done successfully in October 2004, but with less than 2/3 of the lower-house votes, making possible the confirmative referendum. The second favourable polling, in Senate, was done on March 2005, whereas the third one occurred on October 20. During the third polling, former UDC leader Marco Follini announced he would abstain from the final vote, not support anymore the constitutional reform, followed by his party fellow Bruno Tabacci
.
On November 17, the Senate approved the constitutional reform in its final instance; Northern League leader Umberto Bossi attended the discussion and the voting, returning to the Parliament, even if just as spectator, after his illness. During the vote, Domenico Fisichella announced his opposition to the reform, and his immediate resignation from the party, going against the party line about the issue. Italian MPs quite easily change party and even coalition: in the legislature between 1996 and 2001 15% of MPs did so.
The House of Freedoms' proposal of constitutional reform has been done in a unilateral way - no agreement with the opposition, whereas the current Italian Constitution was written after World War II
by all the national political forces (except the fascists), ranging from Liberals
, to Christian Democrats
, to Socialists
, to Communists
and others. According to the House of Freedom, this policy was adopted in order to correct the constitutional reform approved by the former center-left majority in 2001 (Constitutional law 3/2001) with the same modus - no agreement with the opposition. However, the new reform deeply modifies constitutional system of Italy, while the 2001 reform just partially modified a section of the Constitution.
The national referendum, requested by the center-left opposition and a number of associations and regions - even by the center-right ruled Lombardy, has been kept on June 25-26th, 2006 and it has been concluded with the refusal of the constitutional reform by 61,32% of voting.
was put off for two weeks because of irregularities). The final result actually reversed the political scenario of Italy, with left-wing opposition coalition The Union winning in 11 regions, while right-wing government coalition House of Freedoms maintaining only two of the eight regions they were ruling before the election. These results have brought some right-wing members, including vice-premier Marco Follini, to ask for early national election.
Major candidate Romano Prodi
, who has been one of the main supporters of the primary election, gained a clear win, obtaining about 75% of the votes and defeating Communist Refoundation Party
leader Fausto Bertinotti
, Green Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
, popular former magistrate Antonio Di Pietro
, Catholic centrist politician Clemente Mastella
, independent candidate Ivan Scalfarotto and far left
candidate Simona Panzino. The election was also opened to non-Italian official residents, even if they will not be eligible to vote for the general election.
, which was forced to resign in 2004 after heavy protests from parties of his own coalition, especially the National Alliance, and returned to his previous cabinet position one year later, following the resignation of Domenico Siniscalco
; Tremonti's work for trying to fill the cash deficit was often based on amnesties for infringement of tax and building regulations. Prodi and the centre-left often criticized that facet of the centre-right politics.
in 2003, introducing a high number of temporary labour forms and made temporary labour cheaper than permanent.
The centre-left heavily criticized the current law, claiming it has damaged the future of the younger people. More recently, Prodi defined the current labour law as "much worse than French CPE
".
The centre-left has proposed to put temporary and permanent job costs on the same level, contain the number of temporary labour forms, and regulate internships.
and through the 2001 general election
, Italy had a mixed electoral system, with 75% of the seats assigned through a plurality voting system
, and 25% through a proportional one.
The Italian Chamber of Deputies has 630 seats, the Senate 315 (exactly half).
An electoral survey published on September 15, 2005 by the national left newspaper La Repubblica claimed that, with the initial proposal of electoral reform become law, the House of Freedoms would win the next elections 340-290, even if they won only 45% of votes and the opposition coalition The Union won 50%, because the Union also includes several small parties with less than 4% of national votes. This could have been avoided if the small opposition parties ran on a common ticket. Aim of this bill of reform was to reduce the number of parties, and particularly the moderate Left would have taken advantage in respect to the smaller radical left parties.
The Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, commenting on the proposal, asked for the abolition of the 4% cut-off clause, whereas the National Alliance
did not show any favour to this attempt of reform, with its leader Gianfranco Fini
claiming to want first to vote for the constitutional reform, and then for the new voting system, on condition that the 4% cut-off were not repealed.
This proposal of law was strongly questioned by the opposition coalition, who defined it an "attempted coup". Opposition leader Romano Prodi
said it was "totally unacceptable". Several newspapers politically oriented to the left nicknamed the electoral system proposal by the House of Freedoms as "", after "" (Italian
for "fraud
") and the "", (from Sergio Mattarella
), the most common name for the previous Italian electoral law (there is a recent custom to nickname new electoral systems by a somewhat Latinised version of the name of the lawmaker; another one is the system used in regional elections, the so-called "" from Pinuccio Tatarella).
Notably, some smaller opposition parties, such as Communist Refoundation Party
and UDEUR Populars, support a proportional electoral law; nevertheless, they declared they were against an electoral reform by this parliament, because the current law would be changed too close to the 2006 general election.
The Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi
had previously been a strong supporter of the plurality-based electoral law; in 1995, talking about his coalition, he even defined the plurality principle as "our religion".
A modified version of the first proposal, this time with a 2% threshold for entering Parliament and without vote of preference for candidates, but still without the support of the opposition, was presented to the Chamber of Deputies. The voting count started on October 11; the lower house of Italian parliament then approved the electoral reform on October 14.
The new electoral was then eventually approved on December 16, 2005, and countersigned by President Ciampi on December 23, 2005.
Roberto Calderoli
, the main author of this electoral reform, defined this law "a rascality" (using the mildly vulgar term "").
Ironically, the new electoral law allowed Mr Prodi to count on a large majority in the Chamber and to obtain majority also in the Senate, where The House of Freedoms actually had more votes (49.88% vs. 49.18% of the Union).
(Former Italian President), Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
(Former Italian President), Giulio Andreotti
(Former Italian Prime Minister), Rita Levi Montalcini (Nobel Prize
winner for Medicine 1986), Emilio Colombo
(Former Italian Prime Minister), Giorgio Napolitano
(Former President of Italian Chamber of Deputies and Minister of the Interior), Sergio Pininfarina
.
s and was quickly expected to win the election, the gap with House of Freedoms narrowed as the votes were tabulated. The initial Interior Ministry results showed that Prodi had won the Chamber of Deputies by 25,204 votes, and Prodi declared victory on April 11. Berlusconi, however, refused to concede, claiming discrepancies in the vote counting process, with 43,028 Chamber ballots and 39,822 Senate ballots to be re-checked by the Interior Ministry. Berlusconi also claimed problems with the vote from abroad, which was critical in giving L'Unione a majority in the Senate. Five ballot boxes were also found on the streets in Rome after the election. On April 14, however, the Interior Ministry announced that there had been a mistake in the report of the number of ballots to be rechecked. Only 2,131 Chamber ballots and 3,135 Senate ballots merited re-examination (reducing the total number of disputed ballots from the over 80,000 initially reported to just over 5,000). The result of this check added equally a few hundred votes to each coalition.
Analysts also believed that the vote from abroad was so overwhelmingly in favour of The Union that the election would be highly unlikely to be overturned in Berlusconi's favour.
The last ruling of the supreme court ("Corte di Cassazione") on April 19 stated that Romano Prodi won the election by 24,755 votes.
On November 23, 2006, the Rome Attorney's office announced to have started an inquiry following the release of "Uccidete la democrazia" (Kill the democracy), a documentary movie about a supposed attempt by the centre-right government to manipulate the electoral results by switching a large number of blank ballot papers, which notably fell down from 4.2% to 1.1% of all valid papers (over one million less), to votes for the Forza Italia party.
Parliament of Italy
The Parliament of Italy is the national parliament of Italy. It is a bicameral legislature with 945 elected members . The Chamber of Deputies, with 630 members is the lower house. The Senate of the Republic is the upper house and has 315 members .Since 2005, a party list electoral law is being...
held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 the incumbent prime minister
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
, leader of the center-right House of Freedoms
House of Freedoms
The House of Freedoms , was a major Italian centre-right political and electoral alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was initially composed of several political parties:*Forza Italia *National Alliance...
, was narrowly defeated by Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
, leader of the center-left The Union
The Union (political coalition)
The Union was an centre-left coalition of political parties in Italy. It was led by Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy from April 2006 to April 2008, and former President of the European Commission.-Parties:...
.
Initial exit polls suggested a victory for Prodi, but the results narrowed as the count progressed. On April 11, Prodi declared victory; Berlusconi never conceded defeat explicitly but this is not required by the Italian law.
Preliminary results showed The Union leading the House of Freedoms in the Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
, with 340 seats to 277, thanks to obtaining a majority bonus (actual votes were distributed 49.81% to 49.74%). One more seat is allied with the Union (Valle d'Aosta) and 7 more seats in the foreign constituency. The House of Freedoms had secured a slight majority of Senate seats elected within Italy (155 seats to 154), but The Union won 4 of the 6 seats allocated to voters outside Italy, giving them control of both chambers.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/04/11/italy.elections/index.html On April 19, Italy's court of last resort (Corte di Cassazione) ruled that Prodi had indeed won the election, winning control of the Chamber of Deputies by only 24,755 votes out of more than 38 million votes cast, and winning 158 seats in the Senate to 156 for Berlusconi's coalition. Even so, Berlusconi refused to concede defeat, claiming unproven fraud.
Recent developments, including publishing of a controversial documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about alleged frauds in the ballot counting during the election, brought on December 2006 the Electoral Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies to request for a recount of all ballot papers, starting from a 10% sample.
The House of Freedoms
The House of FreedomsHouse of Freedoms
The House of Freedoms , was a major Italian centre-right political and electoral alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was initially composed of several political parties:*Forza Italia *National Alliance...
(Casa delle Libertà), was the previous government coalition led by the former Prime Minister of Italy
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
and was mainly made up of the same parties as in the previous general election. This is the coalition of parties for the election:
The New Italian Socialist Party, a small party composed of former members of the late Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
and led by former 1980s and 1990s minister Gianni De Michelis
Gianni De Michelis
Giovanni De Michelis is an Italian politician.-Biography:De Michelis was born in Venice.His political experience started with the Italian Socialist Party, where he was elected to the municipal council of Venice. He got elected for the first time to the Italian Parliament in 1976 and was elected...
, which is part of the Berlusconi III government with a minister without portfolio
Minister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
, suffered a split on its last national congress (October 21–October 23, 2005), with a left-wing, led by Bobo Craxi, son of the late Bettino Craxi
Bettino Craxi
Benedetto Craxi was an Italian politician, head of the Italian Socialist Party from 1976 to 1993, the first socialist President of the Council of Ministers of Italy from 1983 to 1987.-Political career:...
, who decided to immediately leave the House of Freedoms and unilaterally elected Craxi himself as new party leader. The NPSI will take part in the election in a joint list with the centrist Christian Democracy for Autonomies.
As for the candidate who led the coalition into the general election, Berlusconi experienced an actual loss of support from Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), who asked for a return of the electoral law to a proportional system (which would most likely favour them) and some sort of primary election to formally decide the next candidate to prime-ministership. When the party-list representation system was restored (albeit a form very different from the UDC proposal) and Marco Follini, critic of several reforms imposed by Berlusconi on the whole coalition, resigned from the UDC secretarship, the possibility of a change of leadership inside the House of Freedoms was significantly reduced. On October 27, Lorenzo Cesa
Lorenzo Cesa
Lorenzo Cesa is an Italian politician, and was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in the 2006 General election representing the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats...
was appointed as new UDC secretary, becoming the successor of Follini himself. The coalition announced a "three-forwards" system, meaning that the prime minister candidate will be the political leader, among Casini, Fini and Berlusconi, whose party will win most votes. Since Berlusconi's party was known to be by far the largest one, it was understood that Berlusconi was the actual candidate.
One event which caused heavy criticism from the opposition was the support, sought and obtained by Berlusconi, of a number of fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
movements and parties, notably the Social Alternative of Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini is an Italian politician, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, and previously an actress and model...
, granddaughter of the former dictator of Italy, and Luca Romagnoli
Luca Romagnoli
Luca Romagnoli is an Italian politician and former Member of the European Parliament for Southern Italy with the neo-fascist party Fiamma Tricolore, being a Non-Inscrit in the European Parliament.He sat on its Committee on Transport and Tourism, and was a substitute for the Committee on...
, an holocaust denier
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. Supporters of Berlusconi have responded to this pointing to the presence in the Union of two communist parties, which had among their candidates anarchist activist Francesco Caruso
Francesco Caruso
Francesco Caruso is an American soccer player who last played for USL Second Division side Harrisburg City Islanders....
and a transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
, Vladimir Luxuria
Vladimir Luxuria
Vladimir Luxuria born Wladimiro Guadagno in Foggia, Apulia is an Italian actress, writer, politician and television personality. Luxuria was a Communist Refoundation Party member of the Italian parliament, belonging to Romano Prodi's L'Unione coalition...
.
The Union
The former Olive Tree coalition, expression of the Italian centre-left, now renamed as The UnionThe Union (political coalition)
The Union was an centre-left coalition of political parties in Italy. It was led by Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy from April 2006 to April 2008, and former President of the European Commission.-Parties:...
, was led for the election by former Prime Minister and former President of the European Commission
President of the European Commission
The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission ― the executive branch of the :European Union ― the most powerful officeholder in the EU. The President is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and can reshuffle or dismiss them if needed...
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
, who had already beaten Berlusconi in the 1996 elections
Italian general election, 1996
An early national general election was held in Italy on 21 April, 1996 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic...
. Prodi's candidacy was confirmed by a national primary election
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
, held on October 16, 2005 (for more information about the primary election, see the related paragraph below).
Moreover, the former coalition was enlarged in order to cover the whole ensemble of Italian centre-left to left-wing factions. The parties in the alliance are:
The Rose in the Fist
Rose in the Fist
The Rose in the Fist was a coalition of parties in Italy.The RnP was composed of the social-democratic Italian Democratic Socialists , the libertarian Italian Radicals and some independent members gathered in the Association for the Rose in the Fist The Rose in the Fist was a coalition of...
was officially founded on September 25, 2005, when the Italian Radicals
Italian Radicals
Italian Radicals is an Italian political party which describes itself as a liberale, liberista e libertario political movement .It was...
, a historical libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
, laicist and socially progressive party of Italy, officially declared an alliance with the Italian Democratic Socialists
Italian Democratic Socialists
The Italian Democratic Socialists were a small social-democratic political party in Italy. Led by Enrico Boselli, the party was the direct continuation of the Italian Socialists, the legal successor of the historical Italian Socialist Party...
in the form of a confederation, with explicit references to the politics of Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party . He was elected for two terms as Prime Minister of Spain, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On 2 April 2011 he announced he will not stand for re-election in 2012...
and Loris Fortuna
Loris Fortuna
Loris Fortuna was an Italian left-wing politician, and former Member of Parliament since 1963.-Biography:...
, an Italian politician in the 1970s who became famous for his laicist proposals, and is considered the father of the law on divorce. This confederation immediately caused a stir for not having signed the political platform of The Union, being the only center-left party not to do that; the Rose in the Fist, represented by Emma Bonino
Emma Bonino
Emma Bonino is an Italian politician, former Member of the European Parliament and current Member of the Italian Senate. She is a leading member of the Italian Radicals, a political party that supports economic and social libertarianism, and human rights...
in the final platform meeting, in fact protested about insufficient mentions of social issues such as legalization of civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
s. The Socialists, led by Bobo Craxi who were the breakaway left wing of the New Italian Socialist Party which emerged the House of Freedoms, was supposed to join the Rose in the Fist confederation, but instead reorganised itself in a single party, which however failed to get over the 2% of national votes. However, Bobo Craxi was able to enter in the Lower House, as he was one of the leading candidates for The Olive Tree in Lombardy.
The Union is also supported by a number of minor parties and movements, although of those only the Pensioners' Party
Pensioners' Party (Italy)
The Pensioners' Party is a centrist Italian political party. It was founded in 1987 in Milan and its current leader is Carlo Fatuzzo....
has any elected representation (1 Member of European Parliament).
Debates
For some time, Silvio Berlusconi had challenged Romano Prodi to a debate on national television. Prodi, however, said he would accept only if certain rules had been set. Possibly because he thought he was behind in the polls, Berlusconi saw the debate as a chance to turn the tables, and accused Prodi of fleeing from him. It is notable that, in the 2001 elections, it was Berlusconi who refused to meet the centre-left candidate, Francesco Rutelli.Two televised debates were set by the Parliamentary Committee of Inspection on RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
, which had the goal of ensuring equal treatment for the two political sides. However, Prodi contested the deliberation of this Committee, which allowed Berlusconi to also hold a final televised speech after the debates as Prime Minister. Prodi refused to participate in any debate until this final speech had been cancelled. The issue was resolved on March 3, when Berlusconi finally agreed to cancel the final speech.
The debates lasted about 90 minutes each, did not include commercial
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
s, and had a preset time for each answer and each reply, and the obligation to film only the speaking person at any given time. The candidates were also forbidden to bring any kind of notes with them, even though they could write some down during the debate, and no audience was allowed to participate. This set of rules was very unusual in Italian political talk shows, where politicians usually interrupt each other, talk simultaneously and for as long as they can hold the word. Questions to candidates are posted by two journalists from the Italian press: the moderator himself was not allowed to ask any questions, but only to present the debate and guarantee respect of the rules. At the end of the debates, the candidates are allowed to make a final statement of 3 minutes.
The first televised debate, held on March 14, was broadcast live on Rai Uno
Rai Uno
Rai 1 is the primary television station of RAI, the national public service broadcaster, and the most watched television channel in Italy. It was born as Rai Tv from 1954 to 1961, called Programma Nazionale from 1961 to 1979, after called Rete 1 from 1979 to 1982, then called Rai Uno from 1982 to...
, and moderated by Clemente Mimun, Director of TG1
TG1
TG1 is the brand for Italian state-owned TV channel Rai 1's news programmes. They are shown domestically on Rai Uno and across the Europe on Rai News 24 and the world on Raitalia several times throughout the day...
. It featured questions from journalists Roberto Napoletano of Il Messaggero
Il Messaggero
Il Messaggero is an Italian newspaper based in Rome, Italy, founded in 1878.It is owned by the Italian publishing company Caltagirone Editore, and its leaders include Azzurra Caltagirone, the partner of the political leader Pierferdinando Casini, on its board...
and Marcello Sorgi of La Stampa
La Stampa
La Stampa is one of the best-known, most influential and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. Published in Turin, it is distributed in Italy and other European nations. The current owner is the Fiat Group.-History:...
. It was watched by over 16 million people, a record for a political TV show
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
. During his final speech, Berlusconi, who often overran his intervention times, attacked the rules of the debate, in his opinion too strict, whereas Prodi praised them, pointing out the fact that they are used in US debates this way, as well. Some observers commented that Berlusconi had been disappointing in this debate, scribbling nervously while he was talking and at a point confusing Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
; while all politicians claimed their candidate had won the debate, it was generally agreed that Berlusconi had not dealt a strong blow to Prodi.
The second debate, moderated by Bruno Vespa
Bruno Vespa
Bruno Vespa is an Italian television and newspaper journalist.A former director of Italian state-owned TV channel Rai Uno's news program TG1, he is the founding host of the program Porta a Porta , which has been broadcast without interruption on RAI channels since 1996.Vespa was born in L'Aquila,...
, an Italian journalist and anchorman, was held on April 3 and broadcast live on Rai Uno, featuring questions from Napoletano and Sorgi (same journalists of the first debate). It was dominated by the economic proposals and was more intense, with much stronger tones between Prodi and Berlusconi. In this debate, Berlusconi had the possibility of making the final 3-minute statement: in this time, he delivered his "surprise blow" proposing the abolition of ICI, a local tax on real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
whose money belongs to local city councils.
Later on, it turned out that Berlusconi's proposal was not completely agreed upon in the rest of the House of Freedoms, and Prodi, immediately after the debate, noted "about ICI, I want to know what the centre-right mayors think about".
The Union
After a long discussion, the centre-left coalition released its official platform on February 10, 2006, and presented it to the public the next day. However, the Rose in the FistRose in the Fist
The Rose in the Fist was a coalition of parties in Italy.The RnP was composed of the social-democratic Italian Democratic Socialists , the libertarian Italian Radicals and some independent members gathered in the Association for the Rose in the Fist The Rose in the Fist was a coalition of...
refused to sign it in, because it did not explicitly include some issues, such as civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
s and gay rights. The platform has been criticized by the House of Freedoms because of its 281 page length.
A reduced, more readable, version of the official political platform has been released since then by the coalition, in order to answer the critics from the centre-right coalition.
The main points of the centre-left platform were:
- More safety, by moving police resources from immigration and escort issues to the control of the territory;
- Controlled immigration and promotion of legal ways to immigrate in Italy;
- A quicker and more reliable judicial system;
- Full condemnation and fight of dodging and regularization of concealed labour;
- More integration with the European Union;
- Recognition of rights for civil, unmarried couples;
- Immediate withdrawal of the Italian troops in IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
; - Numerical restraint and regulation of the typologies of flexible labour;
- Reduction of taxes on work by 5% (often referred to as the fiscal wedge), to be financed by increased policing activity against tax dodgers;
- Increase in taxes on temporary work positions to encourage permanent employment.
House of Freedoms
The platform of the House of Freedoms was released on February 25. It is 22 pages long, and it is defined as the continuance of the first five years of centre-right government. It is different by the contract with Italians (just five basic points) which characterized the 2001 election. It was criticized as "vague" and "propaganda".The main points of the centre-right platform were:
- Increase of fiscal autonomy for Regions ;
- Realization of the so-called (big works), notably the Strait of Messina BridgeStrait of Messina BridgeThe Strait of Messina Bridge is a long-planned suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina, a narrow section of water between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of mainland Italy. In 2006, under Prime Minister Romano Prodi the project was cancelled...
; - Support for smaller and family companies, and the Made in Italy export goods business;
- Tax reduction;
- Consolidation of relationships with the USA and reaffirmation of the commitment to the European Union;
- Defence of the values of family as based on marriage;
- Rise of legal penalties for criminal offences;
- Keeping up with the current politics for creating jobs, especially for the young Italians and the women;
- Restrictions on immigration
Opinion polling
According to the opinion pollings released, mainly commissioned for national newspapers, magazines and TV stations, The Union was clearly leading the race to the general election. The three surveys which show a majority of votes for the House of Freedoms have been all commissioned by Berlusconi's party Forza Italia. Notably, the surveys of Penn, Schoen & BerlandPenn, Schoen & Berland
Penn, Schoen Berland is a market research, political polling and strategic consulting firm with American offices in New York, Washington, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, and San Francisco, and international offices in London, Hong Kong, Beijing, Dubai, and Delhi. The firm was founded in 1975...
, a U.S. research firm, were commissioned by Berlusconi because he claimed the national surveys to be politically biased.
According to the Italian law, it is forbidden to publish any opinion polling in the 15 days which precede the election (March 25, in this case).
The final result (49.8% Union vs 49.7% House of Freedoms) was about 3% different from almost all polls (including all the exit polls) reducing the expected 5% gap between the coalition to a difference of about 0.1%. On Italian TV some tried to explain this discrepancy claiming that some House of Freedoms voters were ashamed to admit that they planned to vote for them. Others claimed that the last week of electoral campaign, dominated by Berlusconi's proposal of cutting ICI and by the media's insistence on the alleged new taxes advocated by The Union, persuaded a large number of Italians, usually uninterested to politics, to cast a vote for the House of Freedoms.
| Polling Firm | Date | The Union The Union (political coalition) The Union was an centre-left coalition of political parties in Italy. It was led by Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy from April 2006 to April 2008, and former President of the European Commission.-Parties:... |
House of Freedoms House of Freedoms The House of Freedoms , was a major Italian centre-right political and electoral alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was initially composed of several political parties:*Forza Italia *National Alliance... |
|---|---|---|---|
| IPR marketing (exit poll) | 10 April 2006 | 50-53 | 46-49 |
| Nexus (exit poll) | 10 April 2006 | 50-54 | 47-49 |
| Piepoli Institute (in house poll) | 10 April 2006 | 52 | 47 |
| IPR Marketing | 22 March 2006 | 52 | 47 |
| TNS Abacus | 20 March | 51.5 | 48 |
| GfK Eurisko GfK The GfK Group, established in 1934 as Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung is Germany's largest market research institute, and the fourth largest market research organisation in the world, after Nielsen Company, Kantar Group, and IMS Health... |
20 March | 52 | 46.7 |
| Ekma Ricerche | 20 March | 53.5 | 46 |
| SWG | 17 March | 52.8 | 46.4 |
| IPR Marketing | 16 March | 52 | 47.7 |
| GfK Eurisko | 15 March | 51 | 46.5 |
| TNS Abacus | 13 March | 51.5 | 48 |
| Ekma Ricerche | 13 March | 53 | 46.3 |
| IPR Marketing | 12 March | 52 | 47.7 |
| SWG | 10 March | 52.6 | 46 |
| Penn, Schoen & Berland Penn, Schoen & Berland Penn, Schoen Berland is a market research, political polling and strategic consulting firm with American offices in New York, Washington, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, and San Francisco, and international offices in London, Hong Kong, Beijing, Dubai, and Delhi. The firm was founded in 1975... |
9 March | 48.3 | 48.8 |
| Euromedia Research | 9 March | 49.3 | 50 |
| TNS Abacus | 9 March | 51 | 47.5 |
| Lorien Consulting | 7 March | 51.1 | 48.1 |
| IPR Marketing | 7 March | 52.2 | 47.5 |
| Ekma Ricerche | 6 March | 52 | 47.5 |
| SWG | 3 March | 52 | 47 |
| IPR Marketing | 1 March | 52.2 | 47.3 |
| TNS Abacus | 1 March | 51.5 | 47 |
| Ekma Ricerche | 27 February | 51.8 | 47.2 |
| SWG | 23 February | 51.8 | 47.2 |
| TNS Abacus | 22 February | 51.5 | 47 |
| IPR Marketing | 21 February | 52.1 | 47.4 |
| Ekma Ricerche | 20 February | 51.2 | 47 |
| SWG | 17 February | 51 | 47.8 |
| IPR Marketing | 16 February | 52 | 47.5 |
| Penn, Schoen & Berland | 16 February | 48.2 | 48.4 |
| TNS Abacus | 15 February | 51 | 47 |
| Ekma Ricerche | 13 February | 51.5 | 47.5 |
| SWG | 10 February | 51.6 | 47.3 |
| TNS Abacus | 8 February | 51 | 46.5 |
| IPR Marketing | 7 February | 52 | 47 |
| Ekma Ricerche | 6 February | 52.5 | 46.5 |
| SWG | 4 February | 51.2 | 46.6 |
| TNS Abacus | 1 February | 51 | 46 |
| Euromedia Research | 1 February | 50.9 | 47.9 |
| IPR Marketing | 31 January | 52.2 | 47.2 |
| Lorien Consulting | 30 January | 51.5 | 45.9 |
| SWG | 28 January | 51.4 | 46.2 |
| TNS Abacus | 25 January | 51 | 45.5 |
| IPR Marketing | 25 January | 52.5 | 47 |
| Lorien Consulting | 23 January | 51.3 | 46 |
| SWG | 22 January | 51.7 | 45.7 |
| TNS Abacus | 18 January | 50.5 | 46 |
| Euromedia Research | 18 January | 51.7 | 48.3 |
| IPR Marketing | 18 January | 52 | 46 |
| Lorien Consulting | 16 January | 51.4 | 45.7 |
| SWG | 16 January | 51.4 | 46 |
| IPR Marketing | 11 January | 52 | 46 |
| TNS Abacus | 11 January | 51 | 46 |
| SWG | 5 January | 49.7 | 47.9 |
| IPR Marketing | 11 December 2005 | 52.8 | 44.9 |
| IPR Marketing | 7 November | 52.5 | 44.5 |
| IPR Marketing | 25 October | 52 | 45 |
The election date
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...
asked current PM Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
about the opportunity for an early election for the first half of April 2006, in order to prevent a big political deadlock (the mandate of President Ciampi himself would be over in May 2006 and a newly-elected government was not likely be in office within three weeks). Berlusconi however refused the deal, claiming he would stay in office until the due date of his term.
But, on October 18, Berlusconi announced that the election would be held on April 9, 2006, eventually following the suggestions from President Ciampi. Berlusconi also announced that the next administrative elections (which include the mayoral elections of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
) will be held in May, the day after Romano Prodi had asked to vote for all elections the same day, in April. Berlusconi stated this was due to his fear that good government by center-left mayors could favour the center-left in the general election. Critics say holding all elections in the same day could save millions of euros in public expenditure.
The law
One of the main topics that might be relevant for this general election is the law. Its name, in LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, means equal treatment; it is a special law which guarantees all the main majority and opposition political forces to have equal media treatment, in terms of times and spaces, and, furthermore, denies political commercials for TV and radio outside some dedicated transmissions.
Berlusconi has declared several times that he wants the law to be either repealed or at least changed in a much lighter way. Critics and opponents say that Berlusconi's willingness to have the law abolished are dictated by his almost complete control of 6 channels (his family holding company controls Mediaset
Mediaset
Mediaset S.p.A., known as Gruppo Mediaset in Italian, is an Italian-based media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country...
, which broadcasts three national private channels, and controls indirectly, as Head of Government, the three RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
public broadcasting channels).
In his latter government years, Berlusconi attempted to accelerate his desires; however UDC, who is part of the Berlusconi government, declared several times its opposition to either abolish or change the law, with secretary Lorenzo Cesa, after his election as party leader, who pointed out his refusal of any change of the law.
The law however did not prevent Berlusconi from using his TV channels of Mediaset
Mediaset
Mediaset S.p.A., known as Gruppo Mediaset in Italian, is an Italian-based media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country...
, and even SMS via cellphones, to manage to get more votes. During the election day Berlusconi's channels aired a lot of messages to remind people who were watching his TV channels to use their vote together with spots saying "Mediaset gives you everything without asking for anything in return". While these spots didn't break the par condicio law, it was broken by some of the journalists (especially Emilio Fede
Emilio Fede
Emilio Fede is an Italian anchorman, journalist and writer. He has been the director of TG1 , a news programme on Raiuno.-Biography:Fede was born in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Sicily....
, well-known for his political ideas) of the Berlusconi's channels and in March and April 2006, the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni
Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni
Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni is the regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in Italy.-Administrative leadership:...
fined twice his privately owned channels for violation of the par condicio law, the biggest fine to date (300,000 €).
Tax breaks
Before winning the 2001 election and becoming Prime Minister of ItalyPrime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
, Berlusconi signed in a TV show a Contract with Italians, where he promised, if elected, to fulfil at least four of the five points included in it. One of the main points regarded a tax break for income levels, whereas The Olive Tree policy was essentially to maintain a progressive taxation system.
The generalised tax break was somewhat enacted in 2005, and included in the last Financial Measure. The opposition blamed Berlusconi for doing the tax break in one of the worst economic periods for the country, with no coverage for the resulting debt, and accused Berlusconi's allies of accepting the tax break in return for better power positions; during the negotiations for the Financial Measure, the Alleanza Nazionale leader, and, at that date, vice-premier, Gianfranco Fini
Gianfranco Fini
Gianfranco Fini is an Italian politician, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, leader of the center-right Future and Freedom party, and the former leader of the conservative National Alliance and the post-fascist Italian Social Movement...
, was moved to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and UDC leader Marco Follini, who had no ministerial role before that date, was chosen to replace Fini.
In the electoral campaign, Berlusconi and the whole centre-right coalition almost daily criticized the left, alleging that Prodi would increase taxes if elected, pointing out the centre-left proposal to have a 5% cut of the tax wedge
Tax wedge
The tax wedge is the deviation from equilibrium price/quantity as a result of a taxation, which results in consumers paying more, and suppliers receiving less....
.
Taxes have become the main topic for the end of the electoral campaign, with Berlusconi citing Prodi would reintroduce the inheritance tax, abrogated in 2001, and increase the current tax system on treasury bills (BOT, CCT) and would tax also the stockmarket tradings. Prodi pointed out the fact that he would reintroduce the inheritance tax only for the very rich people, and would not increase the taxes on treasury bills.
Foreign reputation
A good friend of George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, Berlusconi supported the American invasion of Iraq, and, during the Italian EU presidency, suggested to Chairman of the Socialist GroupProgressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats is the social-democratic political group in the European Parliament, formed by MEPs of the Party of European Socialists and allied centre-left parties. The group dates its ancestry via various names back to the beginning of the European...
in the European Parliament Martin Schulz
Martin Schulz
Martin Schulz is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party of Germany, since 2004 leader of the Socialists in the European Parliament .-Career:* 1975-1977: Apprentice...
, during a talk, a role of kapo (concentration-camp inmate appointed as supervisor) for a hypothetical movie, claiming he would be "perfect" for the role. When Berlusconi entered the Strasburg Parliament he was welcomed with posters in various languages addressing him as "Godfather of Europe", explicitly referring to Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
's cinematic series about the mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, without respecting his high institutional role as EU Council president. Afterwards Mr Berlusconi exploded at the insisting questions of MP Schulz. This diplomatic incident cooled down the Italy-Germany foreign relations for a period. Eventually a phone call between the Prime Minister and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor...
put an end to the dispute.
In 2001 Berlusconi declared Western civilization to be "superior to Islam", which he was very much criticized for.
But in particular the international English-speaking press, such as Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
and Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, criticized Berlusconi's work. Several times, before and after his election as prime minister, the weekly worldwide magazine The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
accused Berlusconi of being essentially "unfit to lead Italy".
New voting rights for Italians living abroad
For the first time in Italian history, Italian citizens living abroad were able to vote by postal ballot (without having to physically return to Italy to cast their vote) for 12 deputies and 6 senators who will represent them in the Italian Parliament, an unusual system that was supported by Silvio Berlusconi and promoted by Mirko Tremaglia. These parliamentary seats are organized into four constituencies (Europe, North & Central America, Latin America, and Africa/Asia/Oceania). Candidates must live in their respective constituencies.Forty-two percent of eligible voters abroad participated in the elections. Prodi's L’Unione managed to secure 4 of the 6 Senate seats, while Berlusconi's Forza Italia and an Independent candidate each gained 1 of the remaining 2 seats, aiding Prodi in gaining a majority in the Italian Senate. In the House of Deputies, 7 seats went to l'Unione, 4 to Berlusconi's coalition, and one to an Independent candidate. In North America, candidates from Toronto and Chicago were elected to the House of Deputies while the candidate from New York City was elected to the Senate.
Berlusconi has claimed, in challenging the election results, that there were irregularities in the vote abroad. The result of the vote may have been influenced by the fact that numerous right-wing parties put forward candidates in the constituencies abroad, while there were few left-wing candidates, thereby splitting the right-wing vote. This tactical error may be explained through the novelty of the vote abroad.
Voting rights for Italians living abroad prior to 2006
Italian citizens living outside of Italy have always had the De JureDe jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
right to vote in all referendums and elections being held in Italy (provided they had registered their residence abroad with their relevant consulate). However until late 2001, any citizen wishing to vote, was required to physically return to the city or town in Italy where he or she was registered on the electoral roll. The only exception to this rule was for the Italian elections to the european parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
in which voters could cast their ballot at their nearest consulate but only if they had their residence in one of the other 14 EU countries.
Until 2001 the Italian state offered citizens living abroad a free return train journey to their home town in Italy in order to vote, however the portion of the train journey that was free of charge was only on Italian soil. Any costs incurred in getting from their place of residence abroad to the Italian border had to be covered by the citizen wanting to vote, therefore a free return train journey was hardly an incentive
Incentive
In economics and sociology, an incentive is any factor that enables or motivates a particular course of action, or counts as a reason for preferring one choice to the alternatives. It is an expectation that encourages people to behave in a certain way...
for the large Italian communities living as far away as in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
or Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. For this reason very few Italians abroad made use of this right to vote, unless they lived in cities and towns that bordered to Italy such as in Germany, Switzerland, France and Austria. Various Italian minorities living abroad (notably in the United States) protested frequently at this lack of political representation especially if they paid taxes on property owned in Italy.
After numerous years of petitioning and fierce debate, the Italian government, in late 2001, finally passed a law allowing Italian citizens living abroad to vote in elections in Italy by postal ballot. The change is the result of a thirty-year struggle to recognize the rights and special interests of Italians who have migrated abroad but retain their Italian identity.
Italians wishing to excise this right must first register their residence abroad with their relevant consulate.
Constitutional reform
During the last few months of 2004, the House of Freedoms coalition proposed a large and consistent reform of the current Italian Constitution, which was formulated in 1948. It proposes several changes to the current political system: it reduces the number of MPs from about 950 to 750, it gives more power to the prime minister (no longer called president of the council), there will be no possibility to express a vote of no confidence against the prime minister without indicating his successor (similar to GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's constructive vote of no confidence
Constructive vote of no confidence
The constructive vote of no confidence is a variation on the motion of no confidence which allows a parliament to withdraw confidence from a head of government only if there is a positive majority for a prospective successor...
); it puts an end to the necessity of a law being approved by both Chambers, attributing a clear competence to each of them; it gives more power to the regions, with several references to devolution
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
, the main programme point of the autonomist government party Northern League
Northern League (Italy)
Lega Nord , whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania , is a federalist and regionalist political party in Italy founded in 1991 as a federation of several regional parties of Northern and Central Italy, most of which had arisen...
, still guaranteeing, according to the new version of article 127, the national interest, which had been cancelled by the previous reform of the left.
The Italian Constitution prescribes that both chambers must accept every modification to the constitution twice within three months, and, if it passes with less than two thirds of the votes at the second scrutiny, a national referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on the modification can be held (the reform will make it always possible to call such a referendum). Since the centre-left opposition opposed to the new constitutional reform, describing it as "dangerous", "separatist", and "antidemocratic", the first procedural step, that is, the approval by the Chamber of Deputies, was done successfully in October 2004, but with less than 2/3 of the lower-house votes, making possible the confirmative referendum. The second favourable polling, in Senate, was done on March 2005, whereas the third one occurred on October 20. During the third polling, former UDC leader Marco Follini announced he would abstain from the final vote, not support anymore the constitutional reform, followed by his party fellow Bruno Tabacci
Bruno Tabacci
Bruno Tabacci is an Italian politician, member of the Chamber of Deputies and Secretary of the White Rose party. In November 2009 he was one of the founding members of the new Alliance for Italy party.-Career:...
.
On November 17, the Senate approved the constitutional reform in its final instance; Northern League leader Umberto Bossi attended the discussion and the voting, returning to the Parliament, even if just as spectator, after his illness. During the vote, Domenico Fisichella announced his opposition to the reform, and his immediate resignation from the party, going against the party line about the issue. Italian MPs quite easily change party and even coalition: in the legislature between 1996 and 2001 15% of MPs did so.
The House of Freedoms' proposal of constitutional reform has been done in a unilateral way - no agreement with the opposition, whereas the current Italian Constitution was written after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by all the national political forces (except the fascists), ranging from Liberals
Italian Liberal Party
The Italian Liberal Party was a liberal political party in Italy.-Origins:The origins of liberalism in Italy came from the so-called "Historical Right", a parliamentary group formed by Camillo Benso di Cavour in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia following the 1848 revolution...
, to Christian Democrats
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
, to Socialists
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
, to Communists
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
and others. According to the House of Freedom, this policy was adopted in order to correct the constitutional reform approved by the former center-left majority in 2001 (Constitutional law 3/2001) with the same modus - no agreement with the opposition. However, the new reform deeply modifies constitutional system of Italy, while the 2001 reform just partially modified a section of the Constitution.
The national referendum, requested by the center-left opposition and a number of associations and regions - even by the center-right ruled Lombardy, has been kept on June 25-26th, 2006 and it has been concluded with the refusal of the constitutional reform by 61,32% of voting.
The 2005 regional elections
On April 3 and 4, 2005, regional elections were held in 13 Italian regions (the election in BasilicataBasilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...
was put off for two weeks because of irregularities). The final result actually reversed the political scenario of Italy, with left-wing opposition coalition The Union winning in 11 regions, while right-wing government coalition House of Freedoms maintaining only two of the eight regions they were ruling before the election. These results have brought some right-wing members, including vice-premier Marco Follini, to ask for early national election.
The left-wing primary election
On October 16, 2005, a primary election was held to officially declare the one and only candidate for the centre-left coalition The Union. Over four million voters have participated to the election.Major candidate Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
, who has been one of the main supporters of the primary election, gained a clear win, obtaining about 75% of the votes and defeating Communist Refoundation Party
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....
leader Fausto Bertinotti
Fausto Bertinotti
Fausto Bertinotti is an Italian politician and former leader of the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista. On April 29, 2006, after the center-left coalition's victory in the Italian general election, he was chosen by the new parliament as President of the Chamber of Deputies .-Trade...
, Green Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , is an Italian politician. He served as Minister of Environment in the second cabinet of Romano Prodi between 2006 and 2008....
, popular former magistrate Antonio Di Pietro
Antonio Di Pietro
Antonio Di Pietro is an Italian politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament, an Italian Senator, and Minister of the Prodi Government...
, Catholic centrist politician Clemente Mastella
Clemente Mastella
Mario Clemente Mastella is an Italian politician. He is currently leader of Popular-UDEUR, a minor centrist Italian party. He was Minister of Labour in the Berlusconi government from 10 May 1994 to 17 January 1995, and Minister of Justice in the Prodi government from 17 May 2006 to 17 January 2008...
, independent candidate Ivan Scalfarotto and far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
candidate Simona Panzino. The election was also opened to non-Italian official residents, even if they will not be eligible to vote for the general election.
Economic issues
Italy is the only European country in which there is an almost-zero rate of growth in economy, and one of the highest debts in the whole EU, which brought Berlusconi to ask successfully to have the Treaty of Maastricht parameters relaxed. This led to several critics of the Berlusconi's policy on economy, strictly linked to the work of the Italian Ministry of Economy Giulio TremontiGiulio Tremonti
Giulio Tremonti is an Italian politician. He served in the government of Italy as Minister of Economy and Finance under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2004, from 2005 to 2006, and from 2008 to 2011....
, which was forced to resign in 2004 after heavy protests from parties of his own coalition, especially the National Alliance, and returned to his previous cabinet position one year later, following the resignation of Domenico Siniscalco
Domenico Siniscalco
Domenico Siniscalco is an Italian economist and former Minister of Finance.He served Italian government from June 2001 to July 2004 as Director General of Treasury...
; Tremonti's work for trying to fill the cash deficit was often based on amnesties for infringement of tax and building regulations. Prodi and the centre-left often criticized that facet of the centre-right politics.
Job security
The regulation of temporary employment was first introduced as "pacchetto Treu" during the 1996–2001 centre-left government. It was then changed by Minister of Labour Roberto MaroniRoberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
in 2003, introducing a high number of temporary labour forms and made temporary labour cheaper than permanent.
The centre-left heavily criticized the current law, claiming it has damaged the future of the younger people. More recently, Prodi defined the current labour law as "much worse than French CPE
First Employment Contract
The contrat première embauche was a new form of employment contract pushed in spring 2006 in France by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin...
".
The centre-left has proposed to put temporary and permanent job costs on the same level, contain the number of temporary labour forms, and regulate internships.
The electoral system
Since 1994 general electionItalian general election, 1994
An early national general election was held in Italy on March 27, 1994 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance won handily the election for the Chamber and only narrowly lost that for the Senate....
and through the 2001 general election
Italian general election, 2001
A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The 14th Parliament of the Italian republic was chosen....
, Italy had a mixed electoral system, with 75% of the seats assigned through a plurality voting system
Plurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
, and 25% through a proportional one.
The Italian Chamber of Deputies has 630 seats, the Senate 315 (exactly half).
Approval of a new voting system
A white paper for a proportional-only electoral system was presented to the Chamber of Deputies on September 13, 2005, only seven months before the 2006 general election. This reform, strongly backed by the centre-right Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, proposed a 4% threshold before a party gained any seats, and a majority bonus of (at least) 340 seats for the winning coalition, the total votes for each coalition being the sum of the votes of those coalition parties which had won at least 4% of the national votes. The new proposal was approved by parliament.An electoral survey published on September 15, 2005 by the national left newspaper La Repubblica claimed that, with the initial proposal of electoral reform become law, the House of Freedoms would win the next elections 340-290, even if they won only 45% of votes and the opposition coalition The Union won 50%, because the Union also includes several small parties with less than 4% of national votes. This could have been avoided if the small opposition parties ran on a common ticket. Aim of this bill of reform was to reduce the number of parties, and particularly the moderate Left would have taken advantage in respect to the smaller radical left parties.
The Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, commenting on the proposal, asked for the abolition of the 4% cut-off clause, whereas the National Alliance
National Alliance (Italy)
National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy.Gianfranco Fini was the leader of the party since its foundation in 1995, however he stepped down in 2008 after being elected to the nominally non-partisan post of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was succeeded by...
did not show any favour to this attempt of reform, with its leader Gianfranco Fini
Gianfranco Fini
Gianfranco Fini is an Italian politician, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, leader of the center-right Future and Freedom party, and the former leader of the conservative National Alliance and the post-fascist Italian Social Movement...
claiming to want first to vote for the constitutional reform, and then for the new voting system, on condition that the 4% cut-off were not repealed.
This proposal of law was strongly questioned by the opposition coalition, who defined it an "attempted coup". Opposition leader Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
said it was "totally unacceptable". Several newspapers politically oriented to the left nicknamed the electoral system proposal by the House of Freedoms as "", after "" (Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
for "fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
") and the "", (from Sergio Mattarella
Sergio Mattarella
Sergio Mattarella is an Italian politician.-Life:Mattarella was born in Palermo . He is son of Bernardo Mattarella and brother of Piersanti Mattarella, both politician into Democrazia Cristiana....
), the most common name for the previous Italian electoral law (there is a recent custom to nickname new electoral systems by a somewhat Latinised version of the name of the lawmaker; another one is the system used in regional elections, the so-called "" from Pinuccio Tatarella).
Notably, some smaller opposition parties, such as Communist Refoundation Party
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....
and UDEUR Populars, support a proportional electoral law; nevertheless, they declared they were against an electoral reform by this parliament, because the current law would be changed too close to the 2006 general election.
The Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
had previously been a strong supporter of the plurality-based electoral law; in 1995, talking about his coalition, he even defined the plurality principle as "our religion".
A modified version of the first proposal, this time with a 2% threshold for entering Parliament and without vote of preference for candidates, but still without the support of the opposition, was presented to the Chamber of Deputies. The voting count started on October 11; the lower house of Italian parliament then approved the electoral reform on October 14.
The new electoral was then eventually approved on December 16, 2005, and countersigned by President Ciampi on December 23, 2005.
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of Italy. He is currently a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet....
, the main author of this electoral reform, defined this law "a rascality" (using the mildly vulgar term "").
Ironically, the new electoral law allowed Mr Prodi to count on a large majority in the Chamber and to obtain majority also in the Senate, where The House of Freedoms actually had more votes (49.88% vs. 49.18% of the Union).
Chamber of Deputies ("Camera dei Deputati") (Lower house)
Senate (of the Republic) ("Senato della Repubblica") (Upper house)
Note: 7 Senators a vita (for life): Francesco CossigaFrancesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the eighth President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari....
(Former Italian President), Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro , Italian politician and magistrate, was the ninth President of the Italian Republic from 1992 to 1999, and is currently a senator for life...
(Former Italian President), Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
(Former Italian Prime Minister), Rita Levi Montalcini (Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
winner for Medicine 1986), Emilio Colombo
Emilio Colombo
Emilio Colombo is an Italian politician who was Prime Minister of Italy from 1970 to 1972. In addition to having held top positions in Italian governments, he was also active in European politics.-Biography:...
(Former Italian Prime Minister), Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano is an Italian politician who has been the 11th President of Italy since 2006. A long-time member of the Italian Communist Party and later the Democrats of the Left, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992 to 1994 and as Minister of the Interior from 1996 to...
(Former President of Italian Chamber of Deputies and Minister of the Interior), Sergio Pininfarina
Sergio Pininfarina
Sergio Pininfarina is an Italian automobile designer, like his father Battista Farina. After joining his father at Carrozzeria Pininfarina, he quickly became integral to the company, and during his career oversaw many of the designs for which the company is famous...
.
Vote count controversy
Although The Union led initial exit pollExit poll
An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for. A similar poll conducted before actual...
s and was quickly expected to win the election, the gap with House of Freedoms narrowed as the votes were tabulated. The initial Interior Ministry results showed that Prodi had won the Chamber of Deputies by 25,204 votes, and Prodi declared victory on April 11. Berlusconi, however, refused to concede, claiming discrepancies in the vote counting process, with 43,028 Chamber ballots and 39,822 Senate ballots to be re-checked by the Interior Ministry. Berlusconi also claimed problems with the vote from abroad, which was critical in giving L'Unione a majority in the Senate. Five ballot boxes were also found on the streets in Rome after the election. On April 14, however, the Interior Ministry announced that there had been a mistake in the report of the number of ballots to be rechecked. Only 2,131 Chamber ballots and 3,135 Senate ballots merited re-examination (reducing the total number of disputed ballots from the over 80,000 initially reported to just over 5,000). The result of this check added equally a few hundred votes to each coalition.
Analysts also believed that the vote from abroad was so overwhelmingly in favour of The Union that the election would be highly unlikely to be overturned in Berlusconi's favour.
The last ruling of the supreme court ("Corte di Cassazione") on April 19 stated that Romano Prodi won the election by 24,755 votes.
On November 23, 2006, the Rome Attorney's office announced to have started an inquiry following the release of "Uccidete la democrazia" (Kill the democracy), a documentary movie about a supposed attempt by the centre-right government to manipulate the electoral results by switching a large number of blank ballot papers, which notably fell down from 4.2% to 1.1% of all valid papers (over one million less), to votes for the Forza Italia party.
External links
Political & Electoral Surveys (The Political Thermometer) Q&A: Italian election Election results from the Interior Ministry Election results from the Interior Ministry (Archives of all Elections)See also
- Elections in ItalyElections in ItalyThis page gathers the results of elections in Italy.Italy elected, on national level, a Parliament consisting of two houses, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic...
- History of Italy as a RepublicHistory of Italy as a RepublicAfter World War II and the overthrow of Mussolini's fascist regime, Italy's history was dominated by the Christian Democracy political party for 50 years, while the opposition was led by the Italian Communist Party ; this situation prevailed until the crisis of the Soviet Union and the...
- Politics of ItalyPolitics of ItalyThe politics of Italy is conducted through a parliamentary, democratic republic with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised collectively by the Council of Ministers, which is led by the President of the Council of Ministers, referred to as "Presidente del Consiglio" in Italian...
- European Parliament Election, 2004 (Italy)European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy)Elections to the European Parliament were held in Italy on 12 and 13 June 2004. Italy's highly fragmented party system made it hard to identify an overall trend, but the results were generally seen as a defeat for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a victory for the centre-left opposition...
- Elections in 2006Elections in 2006-January 25: Palestinian National Authority:-January 27: Netherlands Antilles:-February 5: Costa Rica:-February 7: Haiti:-February 23: Uganda:-March 12: Colombia:-March 26: São Tomé and Príncipe:-April 2: Thailand:...
- 2006 Italian Chamber of Deputies election, North and Central American division2006 Italian Chamber of Deputies election, North and Central American divisionThe 2006 Italian general election was the first in the country's history in which Italian and dual citizens living outside the country could vote by postal ballot in international electoral districts...
- 2006 Italian Senate election, North and Central American division2006 Italian Senate election, North and Central American divisionThe 2006 Italian general election was the first in the country's history in which Italian and dual citizens living outside the country could vote by postal ballot in international electoral districts...