Italy election: hung parliament on the cards as populist parties surge – live!

Both the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the far-right League party have ruled out the possibility of a post-election pact but this is currently the only option that looks like it would command a majority.

According to the latest projections, the two parties together would hold 355 seats in the 630-seat lower house of parliament and 168 seats in the 315-seat upper house. Both parties are heavily eurosceptic and League leader Matteo Salvini has been accused of stirring up racial tensions. A tie-up could cause shockwaves around Europe.

Preliminary results make this remote as the coalition is predicted to win only 37% of the vote, including 18% for the League and 14 percent for Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy) party.

The final result of the vote in terms of seats is hard to predict, however, as Italy is using a new electoral law for the first time that combines proportional representation with a first-past-the post system.

If the coalition does win a majority and the League comes in ahead of Forza Italia, this would open the prospect of far-right Salvini being nominated as Italy’s next prime minister.

    Stalemate:

If there is no clear majority, President Sergio Mattarella could choose to leave in place the current centre-left government of prime minister Paolo Gentiloni.

This would allow time to set up a temporary government to reform the electoral law and organise new elections. But the process would take time as consultations could only start after parliament’s newly-elected lawmakers meet for the first time on 23 March to elect speakers.



Source: theguardian

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