- Title: ITALY: Italy's Renzi faces Grillo challenge ahead of EU election
- Date: 23rd May 2014
- Summary: ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER, MATTEO RENZI, ARRIVING ON STAGE AND WAVING AND CLAPPING CROWDS WAVING FLAGS
- Embargoed: 7th June 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Topics: European Union,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA8WXR01ERIE8T05JBOIV2VJCYH
- Story Text: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi takes to a piazza for a Democratic Party rally as the campaigning ahead of the European elections draws to a close.
The European parliamentary elections have turned into a showdown between Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the anti-establishment movement of comic Beppe Grillo that could decide the future of the government.
The ballot on May 25 will be the first national election ever faced by the 39-year-old Renzi, who came to power in February after a party coup which forced out his predecessor Enrico Letta.
More than a vote about Europe, it has turned into a test of his own political legitimacy and his ability to meet the challenge posed by Grillo's proven appeal to an angry electorate disillusioned by recession, unemployment and rampant political corruption.
Do well, he will be able to claim a mandate from voters for the ambitious economic and constitutional reforms he has promised but so far not delivered. Do badly and his pledges to renew Italy and revive its sickly economy risk running into the sand, exposing him to attacks from an army of potential rivals inside and outside his centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
But, addressing a rally in central Rome on Thursday (May 22), Italy's youngest prime minister played down any talk of using Sunday's election as an indication to gauge his support and blasted his opponents for doing so.
"Houston, we have a problem. Do you know what the problem is? It is that the Italian politicians, instead of discussing European politics, are arguing over the European elections only in order to gauge who will in the national elections, who will get one more vote than the others. But this issue is easily resolved because we will win those elections," he said.
Renzi, who officially closes his campaign in his hometown of Florence on Friday (May 23) wove his speech around the themes of confidence, pride and values.
He also touched on one of themes central to the campaigning in Italy ahead of Sunday's election -- immigration.
Italy launched one of Europe's biggest-ever search and rescue missions last October as an emergency measure to prevent shipwrecks after 366 men, women and children fleeing African countries drowned when their boat capsized a mile from Sicily.
The Italian government called the operation Mare Nostrum, Latin for "Our Sea", and hoped that other EU countries would eventually join the effort to stem the influx along one of the most popular migrant routes between Africa and Europe.
More than 43,000 people from dozens of countries - including Syrians fleeing civil war and Eritreans evading military conscription - have been plucked from the sea in the seven months since Mare Nostrum began. That is the same number that completed the dangerous crossing or were intercepted during the whole of last year.
So far, only Slovenia has chipped in, offering one ship late last year. That has put Rome on a collision course with it EU partners.
"How is it possible that the European Union imposes norms and decrees for how to fish, regulates how one must fish sword fish and tuna but does not realise that when there are boats full of children, sent by the merchants of death, it is our duty to save them. But it is Europe's duty not to turn a blind eye. To those who say let them drown, I say where are our values, our culture, our ideals, our dreams?" Renzi said.
About two-thirds of those who arrive on Italian shores move quickly on to other EU countries. Asylum requests to EU members jumped more than 30 percent last year, with Germany receiving almost 110,000, more than any other country in the world, according to the United Nations refugee agency. This influx has prompted an anti-immigration backlash in many European countries, boosting Eurosceptic parties ahead of the elections.
Renzi told the crowds they should stop waiting for a leader to come to their rescue.
"We are the ones. When you want to see the change in Italy, look in the mirror because that's where you'll see the change, we are the ones we are waiting for," he said.
Opinion polls give Renzi's PD a healthy lead over rivals with a survey from the SWG institute published before a pre-election blackout giving the party 34.8 percent against 24 percent for Grillo's 5-Star Movement and just 19.1 percent for Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
But in Grillo, whose insurgent movement stunned Europe by winning 25 percent of the vote in last year's general election, he has an opponent who has struck fear into conventional parties and many expect him to do better than the polls predict.
"I truly believe that Renzi can achieve something, the only problem is that there are too many people around who are easily swayed by propaganda from one part or another, even if Berlusconi has now lost some of his shine but the other, who is even worse, has taken his place and is really persuading people," said local woman Carmen Manuzza, adding that her concern was such she had advised her daughter who was planning on voting for Grillo not to go cast her ballot.
With Italy facing the risk of a return to recession after its economy contracted in the first quarter, the election is being closely watched in the rest of Europe for signs of a return to the chaos that marked the 2011 debt crisis.
So far, despite ambitious announcements of tax cuts, labour reforms and sweeping changes to the system of government, many of Renzi's promises have been held up by the difficulty of marshalling support both in his own party, where he has many enemies and among his coalition partners.
"Renzi has certainly brought a change with him and him being younger that means there is also a generational shift in the political sphere, which unfortunately has not happened for years and which is very important," said Rome resident Mauro Cari.
"Italy will finally show its weight in Europe which was not the case in the past. I think Matteo Renzi is the hope and the reality of the Italian people, I think he is the only one who can save us, the only one," 31-year-old Valentina Sanvito said.
Although Renzi has often insisted he intends to govern until the next scheduled elections in 2018, there has been increasing speculation that he could at least consider a snap election either late this year or early next year depending on the result of the May 25 European vote.
While there are no firm plans, the idea would be to get a feeling for the mood of voters before deciding whether to seek a more solid majority without the need to rely on the small centre-right party which currently backs his government, according to a source close to Renzi.
As the vote approaches, he has clearly singled out Grillo as his most dangerous rival, framing the vote as a choice between reform and blind protest likely to lead only to a return to the chaos threatened by the eurozone debt crisis of 2011.
For his part, Grillo mocks the smooth-faced prime minister as "Renzie", a trendy, leather jacket-wearing fake no more in touch with real problems than Fonzie, the self-regarding character from the old TV show "Happy Days".
Their battle has achieved the unusual feat of pushing Silvio Berlusconi, the 77-year-old media tycoon who has dominated Italian politics for 20 years, into the shade.
Berlusconi, struggling to contain party infighting and forced to serve a community service order for tax fraud that requires him to spend four hours a week at a home for Alzheimer's patients, appears to have given up hope of attracting younger voters.
His campaign pledges include free dentures, a guaranteed 1,000 euros a month for housewives and tax breaks for pet owners, an appeal to the animal-lover's vote underpinned by repeated references to his girlfriend's poodle Dudu. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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