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A general election for the renewal of the two Chambers of the ''' Preliminary Results showed The Union leading the House of Freedoms in the Chamber Of Deputies , with 340 seats to 277, thanks to obtaining a majority bonus (actual votes were distributed 49.81% to 49.74%). One more seat is allied with the Union (Val d'Aosta) and 7 more seats in the foreign constituency. The House of Freedoms had secured a slight majority of Senate seats elected within Italy (155 seats to 154), but The Union won 4 of the 6 seats allocated to Voters Outside Italy , giving them control of both chambers. On April 19 , Italy's court of last resort ('' Corte Di Cassazione '') ruled that Prodi had indeed won the election, winning control of the Chamber of Deputies by only 24,755 votes out of more than 38 million votes cast, and winning 158 seats in the Senate to 156 for Berlusconi's coalition. Even so, Berlusconi refused to concede defeat, claiming unproven fraud. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/world/europe/19cnd-italy.html?hp&ex=1145505600&en=1651450ed147deff&ei=5094&partner=homepage THE POLITICAL BATTLE The House of Freedoms , incumbent PM and leader of the House of Freedoms]] The House Of Freedoms (''Casa delle Libertà''), was the previous government coalition led by the former Prime Minister Of Italy Silvio Berlusconi and was mainly made up of the same parties as in the previous general election. This is the coalition of parties for the election: The Socialist Party New PSI , a small party composed of former socialists of the late Italian Socialist Party and led by former 1980s and 1990s minister Gianni De Michelis , which is part of the Berlusconi III government with a Minister Without Portfolio , suffered a split on its last national congress ( October 21 – October 23 , 2005 ), with a left-wing side, led by Bobo Craxi , son of the late Bettino , who decided to immediately leave the House of Freedoms and unilaterally elected Craxi himself as new party leader. The NPSI will take part in the election in a joint list with the centrist Christian Democracy For The Authonomies . As for the candidate who led the coalition into the general election, Berlusconi experienced an actual loss of support from UDC, who asked for a reform of the electoral law in a proportional way (which would most likely favour them) and a type of primary election for formally deciding the next candidate. But recent developments, which restored proportional representation (albeit a form much different than the UDC proposal) and the resignation of Marco Follini, critic of several reforms imposed by Berlusconi on the whole coalition, from the UDC secretarship, have actually removed for now the possibility of a change of leadership inside the House of Freedoms. On October 27 , Lorenzo Cesa was appointed as new UDC secretary, becoming the successor of Follini himself. The coalition announced a "three-forwards" system, meaning that the PM candidate will be the political leader, amongst Casini, Fini and Berlusconi, whose party will win more votes. As the Populist Forza Italia obtained around 20% of national votes against a 11% of the second-placed party in the coalition, the " Post-fascist " National Alliance of Gianfranco Fini, in the 2004 European Parliament Election , it seems easy to suppose Berlusconi to be the actual candidate. One event which caused heavy criticism from the opposition was the support, sought and obtained by Berlusconi, of a number of Nationalist movements and parties, notably the Social Alternative of Alessandra Mussolini , granddaughter of the former dictator of Italy. However, supporters of Berlusconi have responded to this by highlighting the opposition's flirtation with Communist and other Far Left groups. The Union , candidate for L'Unione .]] The former Olive Tree coalition, expression of the Italian centre-left, now renamed as The Union (), was led for the election by former Prime Minister and former President Of The European Commission Romano Prodi , who had already beaten Berlusconi in the 1996 Elections . Prodi's candidacy was confirmed by a national Primary Election , held on October 16 2005 (for more information about the primary election, see the related paragraph below). Moreover, the former coalition was enlarged in order to cover the whole ensemble of Italian left-wing factions. The parties in the alliance are: The Rose in the Fist was officially founded in September 25 2005 , when the Italian Radicals , a historical Libertarian , Laicist and socially leftist party of Italy, officially declared an alliance with the Italian Democratic Socialists in the form of a confederation, with explicit references to the politics of Tony Blair , José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Loris Fortuna , an Italian politician in the 1970s who became famous for his laicist proposals, and is considered the father of the law on Divorce . This confederation immediately caused a stir for not having signed the political platform of The Union, being the only center-left party not to do that; the Rose in the Fist, represented by Emma Bonino in the final platform meeting, in fact protested about insufficient mentions of social issues such as legalization of Civil Union s. The Socialists , who are the left wing of the Socialist Party New PSI led by Bobo Craxi which emerged the House of Freedoms, was supposed to join that confederation, but eventually did not do so, instead reorganizing itself in a single party, which however failed to get over the 2% of national votes. However, Bobo Craxi was able to enter in the Lower House, as he was one of the leading candidates for the Olive Tree in Lombardy. The Union is also supported by a number of minor parties and movements, although of those only the Pensioners' Party has any elected representation (1 Member of European Parliament). DEBATES Silvio Berlusconi and Romano Prodi faced each other in two televised debates, in accordance with a disposition of the ''Parliamentary Committee of Inspection on RAI '', which had the goal of ensuring equal treatment for the different political sides. However, Prodi contested the deliberation of this Committee, which allowed Berlusconi to hold a final televised speech after the debates as Prime Minister; for that reason, Prodi refused to his participate in any debate until the final speech was cancelled. The issue was resolved on March 3, when Berlusconi cancelled the final speech. The debates lasted about 90 minutes, do not include commercials, and have a previously set number of minutes for each answer and the obligation to only film a candidate when he is making an intervention. The candidates are also forbidden to bring any kind of notes with them and no audience is allowed to participate in the debates, a very unusual thing in Italian political talk shows. Questions to candidates are posted by two journalists from the Italian press, and the moderator is not allowed to ask any questions. At the end of the debates, the candidates are allowed to make a final speech of 3 minutes aimed at the electors. The first televised debate, held on March 14 , was broadcast live on Rai Uno , and moderated by Clemente Mimun , Director of ''TG1''. It featured questions from journalists Roberto Napoletano of '' Il Messaggero '' and Marcello Sorgi of '' La Stampa ''. It was watched by over 16 million people, a record for a political TV Show . During his final speech, Berlusconi, who often overran his intervention times, attacked the rules of the debate, in his opinion too strict, whereas Prodi praised them, pointing out the fact that they are used in US debates this way, as well. The second debate {Link without Title} , moderated by Bruno Vespa , an Italian journalist and anchorman, was held on April 3 and broadcast live on Rai Uno, featuring questions from Napoletano and Sorgi (as well as the first debate), was dominated by the economic proposals and was far more intense, with reciprocal insults between Prodi and Berlusconi. The final speech saw Berlusconi proposing the abolition of ICI, the local housing tax imposed by the local city councils, on first homes; successively, it was quickly understood that Berlusconi's proposal did not fit with the rest of the House of Freedoms, and Prodi, immediately after the debate (as he had no opportunity to reply the final speech of Berlusconi), noted "about ICI, I want to know what the centre-right mayors think about". PLATFORMS The Union After a long discussion, the centre-left coalition released its official platform on refused to sign it in, because it did not explicitly include some issues, such as Civil Union s and Gay Rights . The platform has been criticized by the House of Freedoms because of its 280 page length. A reduced, more readable, version of the official political platform {Link without Title} has been released since then by the coalition, in order to answer the critics from the centre-right coalition. The main points of the centre-left platform are:
House of Freedoms The platform of the House of Freedoms was released on February 25 . It is 22 pages long {Link without Title} , and it is defined as the continuance of the first five years of centre-right government. It is different by the ''contract with Italians'' (just five basic points) which characterized the 2001 election. It was criticized as "vague" and "propaganda". The main points of the centre-right platform were:
OPINION POLLING According to the opinion pollings released, mainly commissioned for national newspapers, magazines and TV stations, The Union is clearly leading the race to the general election. It must be noted that the three surveys which show a majority of votes for the House of Freedoms have been all commissioned by Berlusconi's party Forza Italia. Notably, the surveys of Penn, Schoen & Berland , a U.S. research firm, were commissioned by Berlusconi because he claimed the national surveys to be politically biased. According to the Italian law, it is forbidden to publish any opinion polling in the 15 days which precede the election ( March 25 , in this case). The final result (49.8% Union vs 49.7% House of Freedoms) was about 3% different from almost all polls (including all the exit polls) reducing the expected 5% gap between the coalition to a difference of about 0.1%. On Italian TV some tried to explain this discrepancy claiming that some House of Freedoms voters were ashamed to admit that they planned to vote for them. POLITICAL ISSUES The election date In July 2005, President , La Repubblica But, on Berlusconi stated this was due to his fear that good government by center-left mayors could favour the center-left in the general election. Critics say holding all elections in the same day could save millions of euros in public expenditure. The law One of the main topics that might be relevant for this general election is the law. Its name, in Latin , means ''equal treatment''; it is a special law which guarantees all the main majority and opposition political forces to have equal media treatment, in terms of times and spaces, and, furthermore, denies political commercials for TV and radio outside some dedicated transmissions. Berlusconi has declared several times that he wants the law to be either abrogated or at least changed in a much lighter way. , La Repubblica , La Repubblica[http://www.adnkronos.com/3Level.php?cat=Politica&loid=1.0.184884545] Critics and opponents say that Berlusconi's willingness to have the law abolished are dictated by his almost complete control of 6 channels (he is owner of Mediaset , which broadcasts three national private channels, and controls indirectly, as Head of Government, the three RAI public broadcasting channels). In his latter government years, Berlusconi attempted to accelerate his desires; however UDC, who is part of the Berlusconi government, declared several times its opposition to either abolish or change the law, with secretary Lorenzo Cesa, after his election as party leader, who pointed out his refusal of any change of the law. , La Repubblica The law however did not prevent Berlusconi from using his TV channels of Mediaset , and even SMS via cellphones , La Repubblica, to manage to get more votes. During the election day Berlusconi's channels aired a lot of messages to remind people who were watching his TV channels to use their vote togeter with spots saying "Mediaset gives you everything without asking for anything in return". In March and April 2006, the Italian fined twice his privately owned channels for violation of the ''par condicio'' law, the biggest fine to date (300'000 €). , Il Corriere della Sera Tax breaks Before winning the 2001 Election and becoming Prime Minister Of Italy , Berlusconi signed in a TV show a ''Contract with Italians'', where he promised, if elected, to fulfil at least four of the five points included in it. One of the main points regarded a tax break for income levels, whereas the Olive Tree policy was essentially to maintain a progressive taxation system. The generalised tax break was somewhat enacted in 2005, and included in the last Financial Measure. The opposition blamed Berlusconi for doing the tax break in one of the worst economic periods for the country, with no coverage for the resulting debt, and accused Berlusconi's allies of accepting the tax break in return for better power positions; during the negotiations for the Financial Measure, the Alleanza Nazionale leader, and, at that date, vice-premier, Gianfranco Fini , was moved to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and UDC leader Marco Follini, who had no ministerial role before that date, was chosen to replace Fini. In the electoral campaign, Berlusconi and the whole centre-right coalition almost daily criticized the left, alleging that Prodi would increase taxes if elected, pointing out the centre-left proposal to have a 5% cut of the Tax Wedge . Taxes have become the main topic for the end of the electoral campaign, with Berlusconi citing Prodi would reintroduce the inheritance tax, abrogated in 2001, and increase the current tax system on treasury bills (BOT, CCT) and would tax also the stockmarket tradings. Prodi pointed out the fact that he would reintroduce the inheritance tax only for the very rich people, and would not increase the taxes on treasury bills. Foreign reputation A good friend of George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, Berlusconi supported the American invasion of Iraq, and, during the Italian EU presidency, suggested to Chairman of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament Martin Schulz, during a talk, a role of kapo (concentration-camp inmate appointed as supervisor) for a hypothetical movie, claiming he would be "perfect" for the role. When Berlusconi entered the Strasburg Parliament he was welcomed with posters in various languages adressing him as "Godfather of Europe", explicitly referring to Coppola's series about mafia, without respecting his high institutional role as EU-Council president. Afterwards Mr Berlusconi exploded at the insisting questions of MP Schulz. This diplomatic incident cooled down the Italy-Germany foreign relations for a period. Eventually a phone call between the Prime Minister and German Chancellor Schröder put an end to the dispute. Another of Berlusconi's criticized statements was made in 2001, when he declared Western civilization to be "superior to Islam". Berlusconi: West Superior to Islam , Radio Netherlands Several times, before and after his election as prime minister, the weekly worldwide magazine Italy and the EU , The Economist A capo's annual report , The Economist/Ivo Forni Recently, even other worldwide newspapers and magazines, such as Financial Times and Newsweek , criticized the Berlusconi government's work. Vote abroad For the first time in Italian history, Italian citizens living abroad voted in the Italian election for 12 deputies and 6 senators who will represent them in the Italian Parliament, an unusual system that was supported by Silvio Berlusconi and promoted by Tremaglia. The change is the result of a thirty-year struggle to recognize the rights and special interests of Italians who have migrated abroad but retain their Italian identity. These parliamentary seats are organized into four constituencies (Europe, North & Central America, Latin America, and Africa/Asia/Oceania). Candidates must live in their respective constituencies. Forty-two percent of eligible voters abroad participated in the elections. Prodi's L’Unione managed to secure 4 of the 6 Senate seats, while Berlusconi's Forza Italia and an Independent candidate each gained 1 of the remaining 2 seats, aiding Prodi in gaining a majority in the Italian Senate. In the House of Deputies, 7 seats went to l'Unione, 4 to Berlusconi's coalition, and one to an Independent candidate. In North America, candidates from Toronto and Chicago were elected to the House of Deputies while the candidate from New York City was elected to the Senate. Berlusconi has claimed, in challenging the election results, that there were irregularities in the vote abroad. The result of the vote may have been influenced by the fact that numerous Right-wing parties put forward candidates in the constituencies abroad, while there were few Left-wing candidates, thereby splitting the right-wing vote. This tactical error may be explained through the novelty of the vote abroad. Constitutional reform During the last few months of 2004, the House of Freedoms coalition proposed a large and consistent reform of the current Italian Constitution, which was formulated in 1948. , La Repubblica It proposes several changes to the current political system: it reduces the number of MPs from about 950 to 750, it gives more power to the prime minister (no longer called president of the council), there will be no possibility to express a vote of no confidence against the prime minister without indicating his successor (similar to Germany 's Constructive Vote Of No Confidence ); it puts an end to the necessity of a law being approved by both Chambers, attributing a clear competence to each of them; it gives more power to the regions, with several references to Devolution , the main programme point of the autonomist government party Northern League , still guaranteeing, according to the new version of article 127, the national interest, which had been cancelled by the previous reform of the left. The Italian Constitution prescribes that both chambers must accept every modification to the constitution twice within three months, and, if it passes with less than two thirds of the votes at the second scrutiny, a national . During the third polling, former UDC leader Marco Follini announced he would abstain from the final vote, not support anymore the constitutional reform, followed by his party fellow Bruno Tabacci . , La Repubblica , La Repubblica On November 17 , the Senate approved the constitutional reform in its final instance; Northern League leader Umberto Bossi attended the discussion and the voting, returning back to the Parliament, even if just as spectator, after his illness. During the vote, Domenico Fisichella announced his opposition to the reform, and his immediate resignation from the party, going against the party line about the issue. Italian MPs quite easily change party and even coalition: in the legislature between 1996 and 2001 15% of MPs did so. , La Repubblica The House of Freedoms' proposal of constitutional reform has been done in a unilateral way - no agreement with the opposition, whereas the current Italian Constitution was written after World War II by all the national political forces (except the fascists), ranging from Liberals , to Christian Democrats , to Socialists , to Communists and others. According to the House of Freedom, this policy was adopted in order to correct the constitutional reform approved by the former center-left majority in 2001 (Constitutional law 3/2001) with the same modus - no agreement with the opposition. However the new reform deeply modifies constitutional system of Italy, while the 2001 reform just partially modified a section of the Constitution. The national referendum, requested by the center-left opposition and a number of associations and regions - even by the center-right ruled Lombardy, must be held between April 15th and June 15th, according to the referendum law (352/1970). The 2005 regional elections On April 3 and 4, 2005, regional elections were held in 13 Italian regions (the election in Basilicata was put off for two weeks because of irregularities). The final result actually reversed the political scenario of Italy, with left-wing opposition coalition The Union winning in 11 regions, while right-wing government coalition House of Freedoms maintaining only two of the eight regions they were ruling before the election. These results have brought some right-wing members, including vice-premier Marco Follini, to ask for early national election. The left-wing primary election On October 16 2005 , a primary election was held to officially declare the one and only candidate for the left-wing coalition ''The Union''. , La Repubblica Over four million voters have participated to the election. Major candidate Romano Prodi , who has been one of the main supporters of the primary election, gained a clear win, obtaining about 75% of the votes and defeating euro-communist leader Fausto Bertinotti , green Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , popular former magistrate Antonio Di Pietro , Catholic centrist politician Clemente Mastella , independent candidate Ivan Scalfarotto and far left-wing candidate Simona Panzino . The election was also opened to non-Italian official residents, even if they will not be eligible to vote for the general election. Economic issues Italy is the only European country in which there is an almost-zero rate of growth in economy, and one of the highest debts in the whole EU, which brought Berlusconi to ask successfully to have the Treaty Of Maastricht parameters relaxed. This led to several critics of the Berlusconi's policy on economy, strictly linked to the work of the Italian Ministry of Economy Giulio Tremonti , which was forced to resign in 2004 after heavy protests from parties of his own coalition, especially the National Alliance, and returned to his previous cabinet position one year later, following the resignation of Domenico Siniscalco ; Tremonti's work for trying to fill the cash deficit was often based on amnesties for infringement of tax and building regulations. Prodi and the centre-left often criticized that facet of the centre-right politics. Job security The regulation of temporary employment was first introduced as "pacchetto Treu " during the 1996–2001 centre-left government. It was then changed by Ministry of Labour Roberto Maroni in 2003, introducing a high number of temporary labour forms and made temporary labour cheaper than permanent. The centre-left heavily criticized the current law, claiming it has damaged the future of the younger people. More recently, Prodi defined the current labour law as "much worse than French CPE ". The centre-left has proposed to put temporary and permanent job costs on the same level, contain the number of temporary labour forms, and regulate Internship s. THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM Since 1994 General Election and through the 2001 General Election , Italy had a mixed electoral system, with 75% of the seats assigned through a Plurality Voting System , and 25% through a proportional one. The Italian Chamber of Deputies has 630 seats, the Senate 315 (exactly half). Approval of a new voting system A white paper for a proportional-only electoral system was presented to the Chamber of Deputies on September 13 2005 , only seven months before the 2006 general election. This reform, strongly backed by the Catholic centre-right Democrats' Centre Union , proposed a 4% threshold before a party gained any seats, and a majority bonus of (at least) 340 seats for the winning coalition, the total votes for each coalition being the sum of the votes of those coalition parties which had won at least 4% of the national votes. The new proposal was approved by parliament, overturning the 1993 referendum which brought about the abolition of the old proportional voting system. Pole Agrees to Go Back to Proportional Vote , Corriere della Sera An electoral survey published on September 15 2005 by the national left newspaper ''La Repubblica'' , La Repubblica claimed that, with the initial proposal of electoral reform become law, the House of Freedoms would win the next elections 340-290, even if they won only 45% of votes and the opposition coalition The Union won 50%, because the Union also includes several small parties with less than 4% of national votes. This could have been avoided if the small opposition parties melted togehther. Aim of this bill of reform was to reduce the number of parties, and particularly the moderate Left would have taken advantage in respect to the smaller extreme left parties. The Democrats' Centre Union , commenting on the proposal, asked for the abolition of the 4% cut-off clause, whereas the National Alliance did not show any favour to this attempt of reform, with its leader Gianfranco Fini claiming to want first to vote for the constitutional reform, and then for the new voting system, on condition that the 4% cut-off were not repealed. {Link without Title} , Reuters This proposal of law was strongly questioned by the opposition coalition, who defined it an "attempted coup". Opposition leader for " Fraud ") and the "", the most common name for the previous Italian electoral law. Notably, some smaller opposition parties, such as Communist Refoundation Party and Popular-UDEUR , support a proportional electoral law; nevertheless, they declared they were against an electoral reform by this parliament, because the current law would be changed too close to the 2006 general election. The Italian prime minister After the elections in 1996, when the Left wing won, he changed his mind. The center-left coalition Olive Tree got the majority of seats in parliament but considering Berlusconi's coalition and the Lega Nord, which was not in his coalition, the Right wing had over 2 million votes more then the Left at the Senate, and even 3 at the Senate. {Link without Title} A changed version of the first proposal, this time with a 2% threshold for entering Parliament and without vote of preference for candidates, but still without the support of the opposition, was presented to the Chamber of Deputies. The voting count started on October 11 ; the lower house of Italian parliament then approved the electoral reform on October 14 . Italy deputies back voting reform , BBC News The new electoral was then eventually approved on December 16 , 2005, and countersigned by President Ciampi on December 23 , 2005. , Corriere della Sera Roberto Calderoli , the main author of this electoral reform, defined this law "a rascality" (using the swearword ""). Finally the new electoral law allows Mr Prodi to count on a large majority in the Chamber and to get the majority also in the Senate, where The House of Freedoms actually had more votes (50,41% vs. 48,96% of the Union) RESULTS Chamber of Deputies ("Camera dei Deputati") ( Lower House ) Senate (of the Republic) ("Senato della Repubblica") ( Upper House ) Note: 7 Senators ''a vita'' (for life): Francesco Cossiga (Former Italian President), Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (Former Italian President), Giulio Andreotti (Former Italian Prime Minister), Rita Levi Montalcini ( Nobel Prize winner for Medicine 1986 ), Emilio Colombo (Former Italian Prime Minister), Giorgio Napolitano (Former President of Italian Chamber of Deputies and Former Leader of Communist Party), Sergio Pininfarina . Vote Count Controversy Although The Union led initial exit polls and was quickly expected to win the election, the gap with House of Freedoms narrowed as the votes were tabulated. The initial Interior Ministry results showed that Prodi had won the Chamber of Deputies by 25,204 votes, and Prodi declared victory on , however, the Interior Ministry announced that there had been a mistake in the report of the number of ballots to be rechecked. Only 2,131 Chamber ballots and 3,135 Senate ballots merited re-examination (reducing the total number of disputed ballots from the over 80,000 initially reported to just over 5,000). The result of this check added equally a few hundred votes to each coalition. Analysts also believed that the vote from abroad was so overwhelmingly in favour of L'Unione that the election would be highly unlikely to be overturned in Berlusconi's favour. Italian poll result set to stand , BBC News The last ruling of the supreme court ("Corte di Cassazione") on April 19 stated that Romano Prodi won the election by 24,755 votes. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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