Sunday vote seen as test for Italian PM

Italians are set to vote Sunday in regional elections seen as an important test for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and for the fading Forza Italia party of Silvio Berlusconi.

Published: 30 May 2015 12:50 CEST

PM Matteo Renzi (left) talks to the CEO of Audi in Rome. Photo: AFP

Twenty million voters are to elect governors in seven of the country's 20 regions, as well as the mayors of more than 1,000 municipalities.

This polling battle is the first in Italy, which is slowly emerging from recession, since European elections a year ago in which Renzi's centre-left Democratic party (PD) won with just over 40 percent of the vote.

Observers will also be looking closely at the battle on the right between the anti-immigration Northern League, led by rising star Matteo Salvini, and Forza Italia (Go Italy), the party of former prime minister Berlusconi.

A key test for the premier will come in the northern region of Liguria, where the PD's candidate faces rivals in both a left-wing dissident and the right-wing Giovanni Toti, supported by both the Northern League and Forza Italia.

At present, five of the seven regions holding elections are governed by the left, one is led by the League and another by Forza Italia.

In Campania in the south, the PD's candidate Vincenzo De Luca, fighting the Forza Italia incumbent, has been named in a list of 17 “unpresentable” candidates by an anti-mafia commission.

De Luca has a conviction for abuse of power and faces trial on other charges, including fraud, and could be banned from taking office.

Although an embarrassment for Renzi, the 40-year-old premier's popularity appears to remain high after nearly a year and a half at the helm.

PM 'only serious offer'

“The alternatives to Renzi are not very attractive, he remains the only serious political offer,” said Giovanni Orsina, political scientist at the Luiss University in Rome.

The betting odds suggest a score of 6-1 to the Italian left, with wide expectations that Veneto in the northeast will remain with the League, or 5-2 or even 4-3.

“4-3 for us football fans evokes fond memories,” said Renzi recently, referring to the result of the semi-final of the 1970 World Cup won by Italy against West Germany.

Such a result would however be a disappointment for Renzi, and his supporters have been playing down the importance of the polls.

“The next regional elections are neither a test nor a thermometer for the government. The European elections last year were not, the regionals today are not,” said Luca Lotti, a member of Renzi's cabinet.

Italy's regional elections have ended badly for premiers in the past — Massimo D'Alema, leader of a leftist government, resigned after defeat in regional polls in 2000.

This weekend's election is also crucial for three-time premier Berlusconi, 78, the billionaire media magnate keen on a political comeback after his acquittal of paying for underage sex and a stint of community service for tax fraud.

“If Berlusconi records really bad results, this might be his political end,” Orsina told AFP.

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” — adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The “Report” programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.