Italy 2013: The official thread

[Kitteh]

Sicily regional elections

Turnout: 47.42%

2,280 polling stations reported out of 5,308

Crocetta (PD+UDC) 30.8%
Musumeci (PdL) 24.8%
Cancellieri (Grillo) 18.8%
Micciché (Fli, MPA, Big South) 14.9%
Marano (Di Pietro+Left) 6.2%

Lists
5 Stars (Grillo) 15.5%
PD 13.8%
PdL 12.3%
UDC 10.2%
MPA 9%
Movimento Politico (Crocetta) 6.8%
Big South 6.4%
Cantiere Popolare (Musumeci) 6.2%
Musomeci for President 5.5%
FLI 3.9%
Italy of Values 3.5%
SEL 3.2%
Centrist Alliance (Musumeci) 0.2%

various other lists not supporting big contenders taking 0-1.5%

Sicily is traditionally one of the most conservative areas in Italy, no?

[Kitteh]

Isn't the registration fee only 2 Euros?

It was €1 in the PS primaries last year.

[Kitteh]

Seriously, what is it that makes Italian leftists so stupid?!?

No insult to you, Antonio, but if Italian leftists are stupid then so are (center-)leftists in most of Western Europe. Milliband, Steinbrück and Hollande don't exactly seem like the the best leaders. Guess we can now add Bersani to that list. It's pretty depressing, actually.

(Feel free to correct me about anything here if I'm being an ignorant foreigner)

[Kitteh]

Monti will resign as soon as the Stability Law passes.
He said that he does not want to rule for 3 months with a fake majority...which was what Berlusconi wanted him to do.

Basically,Monti just gave Berlusconi the finger. Berlusconi hoped to appear as the anti-Monti and anti-Euro candidate (criticizing Europe,Euro,austerity and proposing tax cuts...) while at the same time not having any no-confidence,so as to appear "responsible".
Resigning immediately instead of staying in power for 3 more months without the possibility of doing anything,Monti just did a great thing. He's a true statesman,while Berlusconi...it just seems ludicrous to discuss about elections when such human trash is around.

This is not politics,it's a war of ethics and culture.

^^^^

This. I don't agree with many of Monti's policies but I can respect him as a good person who is trying to do the right thing. Berlusconi, on the other hand...piece of s--t is too kind a term.

[Kitteh]

It will never sease to amuse me that even though an over-whelming majority of elections gets closer when the election is near, there will always be a number of posters freaking out becaue of it.

I completely agree. Many don't undersatand that meny voters simply don't answer to polls when elections are far, they are not interested, and when electon is near udually the get a little bit more aware and end up voting the same party as before.

To be honest I'm more worried about what will happen after the election than the election itself. Maybe I'm just a pessimist but I'm very worried that the PD/center-left will end up making some kind of coalition with Monti in the Senate and continuing his policies combined with some token leftist stuff like raising taxes on the rich and/or Bersani ending up being a borderline incompetent leader like Hollande.

[Kitteh]

I want no part of your crazy internet drama but the term "moderate hero" is pretty awesome and will be using it a lot from now on. Thank you.

It's an Atlas Forum coined term. I know, it is really awesome.

[Kitteh]

I have to admit, there is a very tiny part of me that wants to see Berlusconi elected just because it would be hilarious. Fortunately the sane part of me still is in control

[Kitteh]

Anyway, just "voted"!

By "voted", I mean, my parents put a cross on the symbol I indicated and then put my ballot in the envelope... which of course looks nothing like really voting.

Is that really legal?

I remember, in 2003, when I was 8 years old, my mom took me into the voting booth with her and had me push the button to "vote" against recalling Gray Davis. I'm sure that was illegal and I'm surprised they allowed it, but the fact that the polling place was the house of someone a block away from us who we knew well (and who was working as one of the poll monitors that day) might have had something to do with it.

[Kitteh]

Too young for Senate.

Wait, there's a separate voting age for senate?

[Kitteh]

People are over-analysing the importance of sports on election results. I'm not sure wich is more silly, people thinking Scotland will vote for indipendance because they host a non-important sport-event the same year, or people thinking a Milan win will make people vote for Silvio.

Is there any election in the past 50 years in a Western Democracy that's is believed to have been determained by a single sports event?

Swing-voters might be idiots, but they're not that dumb.

Rugby had a very clear and definite impact on the New Zealand 2011 election.

[Kitteh]

"lotta all'evasione" and "equazione del benessere" are just as hilarious, of course. That said, this being Berlusconi, I wouldn't be surprised if he has added other things like "good morals", "youth", "competence", etc...

That one might be serious. Berlusconi seems to love youth.

[Kitteh]

Looking at his wiki page, it seems Fassina was an economist at the IMF. If that's what's considered "leftist" within the context of the PD...