Italy 2013: The official thread

[Keystone Phil]

Third ballot tally (according to La Repubblica):

Rodotà - 250
D'Alema - 34
Prodi - 22
Napolitano - 12
Cancellieri - 9
Fioretti - 8
De Caprio - 7
Marini - 6
Palmieri - 5
Mussolini - 5

465 blank votes. The center-right skipped this round in protest.

Starting on the fourth ballot, only a simple majority (504 votes) will be required to elect a President.

[Keystone Phil]

Hilarious.

[Keystone Phil]

Looks like Alfano is trying to humiliate PD by saying Marini had the amount of votes yesterday that would be required to win today. An attempt to get them to back down and follow the original agreement? Either way, I imagine PD is thoroughly embarrassed by all of this.

[Keystone Phil]

What about Cancellieri? I think I read earlier how PdL was flirting with going her way. She has Monti's backing (she is his Interior Minister).

[Keystone Phil]

Ah, Bindi. One of Silvio's great enemies. A spectacular disaster this has become for PD. But yes, they should totally be tasked with running the country. Yep.

Prodi has withdrawn his candidacy.

All the way from Mali!

[Keystone Phil]

Anyone taking bets on how big PdL's lead will be in the next set of general election polling after this fiasco? They're at..what?...a four point lead now?

[Keystone Phil]

5-7 with Bersani as PD leader, depending on what happens tomorrow.

+5 for Bersani in polls = +2 for Berlusconi in reality.

Italy is full of undiscovered rightist towns in the mountains full of old people and donkeys  that never are polled.

No, he means +5-7 for Silvio if Bersani remains as the PD leader. Right now, it's +4 Silvio. PD hasn't led in awhile.

[Keystone Phil]

Who's that?

The M5S/SEL (for the first few rounds) candidate that has been coming in first or second the whole time.  

[Keystone Phil]

Damn. Let's see if a Bersani-backed stooge can win the primary.

[Keystone Phil]

The person who allegedly schemed to sink Prodi is the infamous Massimo d'Alema. What a piece of sh*t.

Weren't they like best buddies? And I'm talking recently...

[Keystone Phil]

If Grillo supports anyone he loses all his credibility.

Rodotà won his party's online poll.

[Keystone Phil]

Wow.

How would an "extension" work?

[Keystone Phil]

So is Amato as Prime Minister a done deal?

[Keystone Phil]

Standing ovation in the chamber...except for M5S members.

[Keystone Phil]

I wasn't aware reelecting (or 'extending the term of') a President was even constitutional in Italy.

I thought it was just a one term deal as well but I think I saw that that's more of a gentle men's agreement. The center-right tried to get Ciampi to run again in 2006 (trying to prevent Napolitano because of his communist roots. Go figure) but he declined.

[Keystone Phil]

No term limits for a president, just never been done before. They floated a second term for Ciampi ("Ciampi-bis") in '06 but he rejected the idea.

Beat me by under a minute.

[Keystone Phil]

Remember a few years back when everyone was talking about how great it would be when Bersani takes over PD because he was the "most electable" leader and Silvio would be terrified of him? What the hell happened?

[Keystone Phil]

Yeah, I was wondering how Ingroia/de Magistris will fare in light of all of this especially if the center-left goes more "centrist" with Renzi. Along the same lines, has Vendola hinted at another leadership run?

[Keystone Phil]

Tomorrow (and on Monday) there will be hold regional elections in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Traditionally tending slightly to the right, at the general elections center-left and center-right got almost exactly the same number of votes.

The center-left candidate is Debora Serracchiani, a Renziana.
The center-right candidate is Renzo Tondo.
The M5S candidate is Saverio Galluccio.

After what happened in the last days and today I expect a real bloodbath for the center-left. Poor Serracchiani, it's not really her fault.

But I guess it's worth noting that Tondo is the incumbent. Unless he was scandal-plagued, a center-right hold can't be that surprising even if the region is evenly divided.

[Keystone Phil]

Turnout was "only" 51%. That's down 20% from last time.

From what I read, Serracchiani (PD) is at 39.37% to Tondo's (PdL) 38.81%.

[Keystone Phil]

95% of precincts in.

Serracchian (PD)i - 39.34%
Tondo (PdL) - 38.93%
Galluccio (M5S) - 19.27%

[Keystone Phil]

Almost exactly a two thousand vote difference. There are 56 precincts left. 26 of those are from the Udine comune (which PD is winning by right points). She might just hold on...

[Keystone Phil]

What was the deal with Tondo? Was he problematic or is this just such a swing region that it was going to be a squaker either way?

Also, did the 20% decrease in turnout hurt Tondo?

[Keystone Phil]

Tondo had a list separate from PdL?

[Keystone Phil]

And Letta's family has close ties to Berlusconi. His uncle is described as Silvio's "right hand man."