The anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S) flopped in local polls across Italy Sunday as the
old centre-left and centre-right blocs returned to the fore in
the major cities where races were held.
The centre left won Palermo with Leoluca Orlando while the
centre right was ahead in a long-time leftwing fief, Genoa, as
well as in Taranto and Verona ahead of the second round in two
weeks's time.
In L'Aquila, the Abruzzo capital, the centre left was ahead
while in the Calabrian capital of Catanzaro the centre right was
in the lead.
In Parma the ex-M5S mayor, Federico Pizzarotti, looked in a
strong position to be returned over the centre left with his old
party polling very low.
In Palermo Orlando of the ruling centre-left Democratic Party
(PD) won his sixth straight term as first citizen of the
Sicilian capital with 46% of the vote, benefiting from a
winner's bar of 40% in Sicily, compared to 50% in the rest of
the country.
PD secretariat coordinator Lorenzo Guerini said "the PD held,
we are satisfied" while acknowledging that a successful local
alliance with ex-PD group the MDP will be harder to replicate at
a national level.
Rightwing populist Northern League (LN) leader Matteo Salvini
said the results showed that a centre-right alliance with
ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) was "possible,
but only if the LN leads it".
Salvini said that for the next general election "we will do
our utmost to forge a coalition that is as compact as possible"
with FI.
The anti-immigrant, anti-euro LN is vying with FI as top
party on the centre right and Salvini is vying with Berlusconi
to lead the coalition.
Berlusconi said that the centre right's good showing showed
that unity was needed.
"The centre right can win when it is united, when it manages
to push forward the arguments of an alliance based on concrete
programmes and when it chooses credible candidates, who in most
cases come from civil society and not the political profession,"
Berlusconi said.
He added that the M5S's poor showing did not show Italy was
returning to its traditional left-right two-bloc system.
"In most cities the mayor candidates who reached the run-offs
had results of under 40% (of the voter share)," the media
billionaire said.
"This means that the electorate continues to be fragmented
and it does not give you the right to say that the two-bloc
system is back, as some commentators have hastily done".
M5S leader Beppe Grillo denied it had flopped, saying its
opponents were "deluding themselves".
"The M5S was the most present political force in this
electoral round. The other parties camouflaged themselves, above
all the PD (Democratic Party) which presented itself in around
half the constituencies the M5S did," he said.
"The results are a sign of slow but inexorable growth",
Grillo said.
PD leader and ex-premier Matteo Renzi retorted that the PD
had had "good results" and wished elected mayors and
second-round runners "all the best", but said that he had
decided to visit the quake-hit Lazio villages of Amatrice and
Accumoli instead of conducting an electoral post-mortem.
Renzi's trip, along with Lazio Governor Nixola Zingaretti,
was a surprise.
Some nine million Italians went to the polls Sunday in over
1,000 municipalities.
The turnout was low at just over 60%, sharply down on the
last such elections.
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