Italian Local Elections 2011

[Keystone Phil]

I don't think the Right should be expecting a good weekend with these runoffs. Unless some dynamics have changed, I say Pisapia will take Milan (which would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago) and I'm not sold on the PdL taking Naples (which should have been a sure thing for us). IdV making it into the runoff and Lettieri's very weak showing in the first round are enough reasons to be worried.

Maybe Silvio will realize his antics didn't help for once. I'm not holding my breath though.

[Keystone Phil]

wasn't naples supposed to be close? I know it's a very liberal city, but the right was overperfoming there, am I right??

I'll echo the other comments here: Naples is very, very far from being a "very liberal" city. The city and region are very receptive to the Right and was (I guess it's appropriate to use "was" now) a Berlusconi stronghold. That makes the PdL loss even more embarrassing. This was one of those sure pick ups just a few weeks ago. Instead, it was a loss and wasn't even close. What an absolutely disastrous result.

Milan is obviously another catastrophe with Trieste and Cagliari just adding insult to injury. Another win for the Berlusconi haters that I'm surprised wasn't mentioned here: they picked up the town where his "Bunga Bunga" mansion is located.

Naturally, some friends of mine that are PdL loyalists over there find a way to blame this on Fini/FLI and downplay the losses. I guess some people will never learn. Anyway, the little bit of good news here is that these weren't actually PD wins. However, it does raise my concerns about Vendola. If they could get Pisapia elected with 55% in Milan, maybe those of us on the Right should stop rooting for Vendola to be the Left's standard bearer next time around. 

[Keystone Phil]

I'm disappointed in Italy's right particularly, as the fixation on Berlusconi gives me the Mussolini heebie-jeebies and their platform can be rather incoherent at times. 

And it's going to really hurt them when Berlusconi is gone. So many of them will be confused as to how to move forward. Yet another reason why I now back Fini/FLI more than the PdL.

[Keystone Phil]

Who is Fini backing there? Looks like his Terzo Polo partners are split.