On December 28, 2017, President Sergio Mattarella of Italy dissolved the Italian Parliament in preparation for the general election. Add Italy to the list of EU countries without a government.
On March 4, 2018, eligible Italian voters must go to the polls to cast their votes to elect 630 members of Chamber of Deputies and 315 elective members of the Senate of the Republic. Yes, voting is technically compulsory. It is written in article 48 of their constitution. But the repercussion for not voting is almost inexistent, something like not getting the best daycare for your children or something (but you still get a daycare anyway, just not the best).
It will also be the first time Italy test out their new election law, nicknamed Rosatellum. This new election law gives Italy’s bicameral parliament a uniformity when it comes to selecting representatives. Previously, the Chamber was elected with winner-take-all method and the Senate was elected with pure proportional system.
If I were an Italian I would get confused too.
So in December 2016, it was proposed that Italy just abolish the Senate altogether. It’s weird since universally Italians can vote when they turned 18 but have to wait until they turn 25 to vote for the Senate. So basically if you are a 19 year old you get one ballot and if you’re 26 you get two – I can’t grasp the concept either.
But this is Europe’s next crucial election.
Italy is EU’s 4th largest economy with €2.3 trillion debt (basically nothing compared to the United States’ USD 20 trillion debt, but it’s still a shitload of money). Along with the global rise of right wing populism, a coalition of rightwing parties assembled by Silvio Berlusconi comes second in the poll after anti-establishment Five Star Movement (they are neither left nor right).
Side note: This Silvio Berlusconi dude is insane. Like, really insane. He is a media tycoon with a long list of legal problems and controversies. He was also 4x Prime Minister of Italy. Now it gets you to really wonder how much power the media has on elections, eh?
Thankfully, even with Crazy B’s political comeback, almost 40% of Italians are still undecided, leaving room for candidates from more moderate parties to clinch parliamentary seats.
Nevertheless, issues such as immigration, Euro as a currency, corruption, and unemployment could give a boost to Berlusconi’s rightwing coalition. To tackle this, B proposed to introduce a parallel currency for domestic use (so bye bye Euro), flat rate income tax, abolish inheritance, housing, and road tax (what a Republican move), implement a minimum €1,000 income, and of course, block all new immigrants from coming in.
I remember when I was campaigning for Student Government President in middle school, I promised bullshit like building a swimming pool even though we sat literally on top of each other in class. I also remember when Trump promised to build a wall along the US-Mexico border during the 2016 election. We all promise things we know are unachievable when we want to win people’s trust, don’t we?
Observers predict that this election will result in a hung parliament, which is when no particular party has an absolute majority. This means there is a chance that there will be an unstable left-right coalition (most probable Five Star Movement and another party) who are incapable of passing major legislation or pushing through the structural reforms desperately needed.
Chasing Elections 