Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th of June the Italians will be called to vote for the European Parliament. One of the specific features of the Italian politics is that the results of that vote are not going to be considered as it should be: that is how the various parties convince (or not) the electors on specific European issues.
All the various leaders will look at the output as a confirm (or not) of their domestic politics. Said that the electoral system is strictly proportional, the European issues are thus passing in a second line, with the parties more focused on their own backyard, and the day after the discussion will be on wether the prime minister’s party and the other parties of the majority coalition will have gained some percentage points or not. And the same will happen in the vast field of the opposition. In other words, these are something like ‘mid-term elections’.
Looking now at how the parties are approaching those days, and considering that in Italy there is a threshold of the 4%, one of the main issues at the moment is whether the various leaders (Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, or Elly Schlein, the leader of Democratic Party, the main op position party) will appear on the list. Appearing would probably boost the result of their parties, but, on the other hand, the fact that both leaders would not go to Brussels, could be a problem.
As to the other two parties of the majority, a bad result for ‘Lega’ could cause serious problems for the stability of the government. Another important issue is about the result of ‘Forza Italia’: these are, in fact, the first elections after the death of the founder, the tycoon Silvio Berlusconi.
The ‘5 Stars’ movement is looking forward to seeing the result. Their main concern is becoming the most voted party among the oppositions. Which is not really easy: the most recent surveys still predict a 4-5 points gap between the two.
And we also have the ‘European – liberal’ area, in which three parties (‘Azione’, lead by Carlo Calenda, ‘Italia Viva’, lead by the former prime minister Matteo Renzi, and “Più Europa”, lead by the old but combative Emma Bonino) are contending the votes. Should the three of them succeed in forgetting the shackles of the recent controversies and join together in a unique list, a good result is at stake. On the opposite, the threshold of the 4% could be a hard target to reach.
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