Oh what’s the point?

Perso
Author

Written by Gianluca

Published

February 27, 2013

I think this is one of the most interesting things about the Italian elections. In the following, I’ve listed the main parties. There are 12 (you could include some more, but I have tried to use the official data from the Italian Home Office and kept only those with a seizable proportion of predicted votes).

  1. Partito Democratico (Democratic Party)
  2. Sinistra e Liberta’ (Left and Freedom): Not present in 2008
  3. Centro Democratico (Democratic Centre): Not present in 2008
  4. Popolo della liberta’ (People of Freedom)
  5. Lega Nord (Northern League)
  6. Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy): Not present in 2008
  7. Movimento 5 Stelle (5 Star Movements): Not present in 2008
  8. Scelta Civica con Monti (Civic Choice with Monti): Not present in 2008
  9. Rivoluzione Civile (Civil Revolution)
  10. Fare per Fermare il Declino (Do it to stop the decline): Not present in 2008
  11. Partito Comunista dei Lavoratori (Comunist Party of Workers)
  12. Forza Nuova (New Power): Not present in 2008

There are a few things that actually strike me:

  1. I am not sure that there are many more countries where it is necessary to keep track of at least 12 parties as the “main ones”;
  2. I know I’ve said this before, but just by looking at the parties’ names, one really should give up and forget about any serious political argument;
  3. Out of the “main” 12 parties, more than 50% did not take part in the previous general election (2008) \(-\) although in many cases, the people who are currently in those “new” parties were already running for office either in other parties, or effectively in the same party which just happened to have a different name, at the time;
  4. Interestingly, the votes cast by the Italians living abroad (including yours truly) shows a completely different picture: the Democratic Party is the clear winner and Scelta Civica (led by the former PM Mario Monti) gets nearly twice as much as compared to the votes they got from Italy.

I am not sure what will happen next. In fact, I don’t quite know what to expect. Amusing times (may be).