ITALY-ELECTION/REACTIONS Italian Prime MInister Renzi's centre-left performs below expectations in local elections

Record ID: 149660

  • Title: ITALY-ELECTION/REACTIONS Italian Prime MInister Renzi's centre-left performs below expectations in local elections
  • Date: 1st June 2015
  • Summary: VARIOUS PEOPLE WALKING IN STREETS
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADW1PH93SZIFFFU7Z0DD883O5M
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's ruling centre-left party promised on Monday (June 1) to push on with its reform agenda after local elections on Sunday (May 31) which saw strong results for anti-establishment and eurosceptic parties. But for most Italians it was business as usual.
    Italian newspaper headlines emphasized the lack-lustre results of the centre-left, but in fact centre-left candidates backed by Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) won five out of seven regions that voted on Sunday but a fall in the overall vote and the loss of the key region of Liguria dented the 40-year old prime minister's previously unchallenged supremacy in Italian politics.
    The anti-immigrant Northern League, which wants to scrap the euro, benefited from rising public concern over refugee arrivals in southern Italy to score a decisive win in the north-eastern Veneto region expand its vote outside of its main heartland.
    Together with a strong showing for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, the result confirmed the appeal of anti-system parties in the eurozone's third-largest economy after years of recession and Brussels-inspired austerity.
    Franco Pavoncello, Politics Professor at Rome's John Cabot University felt that the results did not really show a victory for anti-austerity parties.
    "The kind of Podemos (Spanish anti-austerity party) victory we are seeing, the (Greek Prime Minister Alexis) Tsipras type of victory is not really represented in this regional election. The 5 Star movement held, they got 20 percent but we didn't see this sweeping victory of radical movement or anti-euro, anti-austerity movement," said Pavoncello.
    Victories in Tuscany, Umbria, Campania, Marche and Puglia left the centre-left in control of 17 of Italy's 20 regional governments.
    However the result was seen as a disappointment after a sharp fall in the overall PD vote from a record 41 percent in last year's European elections, the high-water mark for Renzi, who came to power last year after ousting his predecessor Enrico Letta in a party coup.
    "I think that whatever happens in this regional election it really isn't that much significant in terms of the capacity of the Renzi government to stay for now. Because the Renzi government in my opinion at this stage has a role to play in terms of reforms at the national government level that no other party, no other coalition at this stage can really fulfil," explained Pavoncello.
    Many Italians also expressed their support for Renzi, and believed he would definitely stay in government.
    "I am sorry about this. I am truly sorry because the others are not worth anything - they are full of hot air," said pensioner Maria Teresa Littera referring to the poorer than expected performance of the centre-left.
    When asked if Renzi would finish his term in office, businessman Massimo Buchi said yes.
    "Yes, I think so, yes. Because what I think that if the government were to fall now, it would be a disaster."
    Nicola Fiori added his point of view:
    "He is surrounded by a general consensus, and unfortunately, unfortunately for me I'd say, he'll be there until 2018."
    The regional elections have no direct impact on national politics but Renzi needed a convincing result to maintain momentum for labour, education and constitutional reforms which have met fierce resistance from trade unions, the political opposition and the left wing of the PD.
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