In the end, the specter of abstention did not arise. Or at least, it clearly didn’t – for now – in the critical elections in Italy this Sunday. This is what comes out of the data released by the Italian Ministry of the Interior at half past one in the afternoon. flock to surveys remains practically constantAt that time 19.23% of the population had already gone to vote, 0.20% less than in the previous elections in 2018.
Dozens of people in Rome patients were waiting It’s his turn to exercise his right in front of a ballot box in Monteverde’s middle-class neighborhood. Despite the rain forecast, the sun, which decided to come out at the last moment, made the pilgrimage more enjoyable with many voters. convinced of the importance of their vote It is these elections that keep Europe tense as well.
“Rarely have I felt such an important choice,” said 41-year-old set designer Virginia. “Today I will drive for about four hours to vote, because I live in another region. But I have to. Everything is wrong. If the far right wins, we will fall into the abyss,” he said. a possible victory Giorgia Meloni, leader of Italy’s far-right Brotherhood.
He wasn’t the only one to reason this way. The idea was echoed by many of the interviewees this newspaper consulted. “These are very important choices.Let’s see if things will change with the same old ones years later”, another resident said, revealing that another vote tended to the right. “I haven’t voted for over 20 years, but now I’ll hold my nose and vote centre-left. I don’t want Giorgia Meloni to win. “Massimo, a German-based journalist, is a very dangerous woman, a racist.”
More voters are going to the polls than analysts and polls expect, not just in Rome. Inside palermo, Similar scenes can be seen in Sicily’s most important city. “I am a student and live in Rome but I came here to vote. I think that’s important, a youth from this city told RAI state television.
in Milan, Even Silvio Berlusconi, leader of centre-right Forza Italia, I’m surprised by the situation. “This is the first time I see queues to vote. I’ve never seen anything like it in other years,” the politician said while voting at the polling station in this important Italian city. “I feel a little bad, but this time there is no choice. You must vote yes or yes”, another citizen residing in Florence reported.
What is unknown is what consequences it may lead to. A higher-than-expected influx could not benefit the right-wing coalition made up of the Brothers of Italy, the Berlusconi formation, and the Matteo Salvini League. The alternative is the Democratic Party, led by progressive Enrico Letta, a senior university professor promising a pro-European continuum.
What is at stake is not small. The elections will serve to elect 600 parliamentarians (400 deputies and 200 senators) and the country’s new government, after the previous Mario Draghi government abruptly fell last July. According to recent polls (two weeks ago under Italian law), some political upheavals that could bring the most right-wing coalition in Italy’s republican history to power.