Italy 2013 official results thread

[justfollowingtheelections]

Is this (posted on the Guardian's liveblog) likely to be reasonably accurate?

That's one of the weirdest maps ever.  Can someone explain to me the alliance between Lombardy and Southern Italy?  It really doesn't make any sense to me.

[justfollowingtheelections]

so would Grillo's party's entrance into the parliament be a bad thing? I honestly cannot tell and going by what I am reading on Wikipedia, 5 Star Movement seems decent. What do you guys know about this that I don't?

Grillo is a demagogic madman and M5S has no actual platform besides Grillo yelling about how horrible politicians, politics, the system and the establishment are.

Isn't that true though?  He sounds like a typical comedian to me, and I guess what his voters are saying is that you're all a joke and this is what you deserve.
It would be similar to Americans voting for Stephen Colbert.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Why is the Left so weak in the south?  You would think poor areas would be more likely to vote for the left wing party.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Why is the Left so weak in the south?  You would think poor areas would be more likely to vote for the left wing party.

Perhaps for the same reason the Democrats in the US are weak in poor states like West Virginia and Alabama and Mississippi - as Obama said (it was gaffe and a gaffe is usually when you tell the truth) people are just clinging to their guns and religion. In southern Italy no matter how poor people are - they look to leadership from the catholic Church and the Mafia in that order.

Is this true?  I know that Italians describe themselves as Catholic (at least more than they do in France or Spain) but I don't think they're as submissive to authority as Americans.  I guess the post-WWII anti-communist rhetoric is partially responsible?

[justfollowingtheelections]

Any chance that Grillo forms a coalition with the bald left-wing dude?  They seem to be ideologically close.

[justfollowingtheelections]

It is pretty absurd when you think about it that "traditionalist areas" would vote for Berlusconi, Berlusconi isn't exactly the type of guy who epitomizes traditionalism or moral values to put it quite mildly...

Yeah, there is plenty of irony in Italy.

From what I understand, sexual images are very mainstream on Italian tv.  Traditional values I guess has a very different meaning in Italy.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Any chance that Grillo forms a coalition with the bald left-wing dude?  They seem to be ideologically close.

This is the top question in my mind too. And I'm a little bit disappointed on the result of SEL.

Well, Guardian says:
‎"It seemed certain that neither right nor left could obtain an outright majority in the upper house, where the balance would be held by Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement (M5S). So far, Grillo has ruled out supporting either side in his drive to sweep away Italy's existing political parties and the cronyistic culture they support."

Well that's nice, and on principle I agree with Grillo, but usually when there's a new election due to a lack of a majority, the top two parties benefit, so it might be better for him to change his mind and fight the system from within.

[justfollowingtheelections]

From what I have seen Italians living in Europe re very supportive of Monti while Italians in Italy don't seem to like him that much.  Can someone explain why?

[justfollowingtheelections]

From what I have seen Italians living in Europe re very supportive of Monti while Italians in Italy don't seem to like him that much.  Can someone explain why?

Less touched by austerity, I suppose.

Well yes, but why would they support Monti?

[justfollowingtheelections]

To those who are really disappointed with Grillo's success, I must remind you that disenchanted voters always vote for an outsider.  If it wasn't for Grillo, those voters would have probably voted for a Golden Dawn type party.  You should actually be happy there was a candidate that prevented that from happeninf.

Also, it sounds like Bersani will try to convince Grillo to work with him:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/26/italy-bersani-coalition-beppe-grillo

[justfollowingtheelections]

People who work at the embassy? lol

BTW is there a website where I can see the results for all Italians abroad?