Rome's Piazza Montecitorio in front of the parliament, Rome, 13 February, 2013 | ITALIANS PREPARE TO GO TO THE POLLS THIS WEEK FOR AN ELECTION IN WHICH THE OUTCOME IS FAR FROM CERTAIN. | AFP / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE
A ‘confused’ election?
Before the Italian elections, Federico Grandesso spoke with Philippe Ridet, French top correspondent in Rome of the daily newspaper Le Figaro.
How do the Italian elections appear to you, what is the French perspective?
These are difficult elections taking place for the first time in winter and this has an impact on the electoral campaign.
These elections are dominated by the personality of Berlusconi that are pushing on populists and demagogic themes after that he is also dictating the rhythm of this campaign.
Mario Monti started focusing only on his concrete programme but unfortunately his agenda is now on second position if we think at the beginning. Mr. Bersani, on the other side, is having some difficulties in this fight but he is still leading in the polls.
These elections are showing two things: first there are two blocks, the PDL which still didn’t succeed to regain the result obtained during the election in 2008; and the left which is accredited at 34 %. Second, Monti positioned himself in the middle hoping to play an alternative to the PDL. We have then the alley of Bersani, the SEL of Nichi Vendola and the out of control movement of Beppe Grillo.
What could be an outcome of this complicated election?
The outcome of this vote risks to be very confused and if Berlusconi will be able to reach the first positions and get the 55% of the seats of the parliament (lower house); in Europe there will be a strong diffidence about his program.
During his campaign Berlusconi didn’t speak about Europe except to denigrate Angela Merkel and communicate about the spread as if it was not an important issue.
If Berlusconi wins the diffidence on Italy of the past will come back, after the announcement of his coming back into politics the markets underlined their opposition.
On the other side it’s evident that Bersani and Sel will not be able to have a strong majority in the parliament for this reason the left will have to do an agreement with Monti; I think that the distance on the programmes between these two coalitions is not so wide, I think Monti and Bersani will be able to understand each other.
The other articles in this series are:
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Italian Editor, Journalist
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