The next Italian general election is scheduled to be in 2006, should the majority parliamentary group not to ask the President of the Republic for an early election. The Italian law system elects the two Chambers of the National Parliament both together for a maximum of five years. Since the last general election was done in May 13, 2001, the next one should occur for this year.

The political battle

The House of Freedoms will surely re-candidate the current Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. The parties who will compose the coalition should be the same as the previous general election, that were:

• Forza Italia, personality-driven party led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi himself;
• National Alliance, moderate right-wing party led by Ministry for Foreign Affairs and former vice-premier Gianfranco Fini;
• Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, moderate catholic centrists led by current vice-premier Marco Follini ;
• Northern League, authonomous right-wing Northern Italian party, led by former Reform Ministry Umberto Bossi;

A possible new allied into the coalition could be the Socialist Party New PSI, a small party composed by former socialists of the late Socialist Italian Party and led by former 1980s and 1990s ministry Gianni De Michelis.

About the former Olive Tree coalition, expression of the Italian left, now renamed as The Union (L'Unione), it will be led for the electin by former Prime Minister and former President of the European Commission Romano Prodi, who already beated Berlusconi for the 1996 elections. His candidacy, which was proposed to be appointed by a national primary election, was eventually accepted by the whole coalition parties after the shocking winning on the regional elections held in 13 Italian regions (out of 20) on April 2005.

Moreover, the former coalition was enlarged in order to cover the whole Italian ensemble of left-wing factions. The parties who adhered the alliance are:

• Popular Alliance-UDEUR, catholic centrist party, probably the rightist wing of the coalition, led by Clemente Mastella ;
• Daisy-Democracy is Freedom, centrist & moderate left-wing liberals led by former Rome's Mayor and former 2001 Olive Tree candidate Francesco Rutelli;
• European Republican Movement, liberal party led by Luciana Sbarbati;
• Democrats of the Left, moderate social-democratic and Third Way party, led by Piero Fassino;
• Italian Democratic Socialists, small social-democratic party led by Enrico Boselli ;
• Federation of the Greens, green and ecologist party led by Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio ;
• Italy of Values-List Di Pietro, liberal and anti-corruption movement led by popular former Mani Pulite magistrate Antonio Di Pietro;
• Party of Italian Communists, moderate communist party, born in 1998 as split of the Communist Refoundation Party, led by Oliviero Diliberto ;
• Communist Refoundation Party, communists led by Fausto Bertinotti.

In addition to that, four of the most moderate parties of the coalition, Democrats of the Left, Daisy-Democracy is Freedom, European Republican Movement and Italian Democratic Socialists, have been joined to a parties' confederation, named All United in the Olive Tree, who standed for the 2004 European elections and 2005 Regional elections, with growing popularity.

Political issues

The par condicio law

One of the main topics that might be relevant for this general election is the par condicio 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 declared several times to want the par condicio law to be abrogated [1]. Critics and opponents say that the Berlusconi's willing to have the law off are dictated by his almost completely TV ownership of 6 channels up to 7 (he is owner of Mediaset, which broadcasts three national private channels, and controls indirectly, as Head of Government, the three RAI public broadcasting channels).

The tax cut

Before to be elected as Prime Minister of Italy, during the 2001 electoral campaign, Berlusconi signed the so-called "Contratto con gli italiani" (Contract to the Italians), where he promised, if elected, to fulfil at least four of the five points it was composed by. One of the main points regarded the tax cut for all the social classes, whereas the Olive Tree business politics was based essentially to reduce taxes and basic services costs mainly for the poorest people. The tax cut for everybody was somehow done this year, and included in the last Financial Measure. The opposition blamed Berlusconi to have done the tax cut in one of the worst economical periods for the country, with no covering of the resultant debt, and accusing the Berlusconi allies to have accepted the tax cut in return for better ministerial positions (during the discussion on the Financial Measure, the AN party leader, and, at that date, vice-premier, Gianfranco Fini was moved as Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and UDC leader Marco Follini, who had no ministerial role before that date, was chosen to replace Fini).

The foreign reputation

The Olive Tree coalition noted about the Berlusconi issues on foreign politics: a good friend of George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, Berlusconi supported the Iraqi invasion done by the USA, and, during the Italian EU presidency, he suggested to MEP Martin Schulz , during a talk, to a role of kapo for a hypotetic movie. [2] [3] This diplomatic incident, which cooled down the Italy-Germany foreign relations for a long period, followed another Berlusconi's gaffe, when, in 2001, he declared the Western civilization to be "superior to Islam". [4]

Several times, before and after his election as PM, the weekly worldwide and well-reputated magazine The Economist accused Berlusconi to be essentially "unfit to lead Italy". [5] [6] [7].

Attempts for a Constitutional Reform

During the last months of 2004, the House of Freedoms coalition proposed a big and consistent reform of the current Italian Constitution, formulated in 1946 [8]. It proposes several changes to the current political system, from a parliamentary system to a more presidential one, with several references about devolution, the main programme point of the federalist and ex-independist government party Northern League.

The Italian law imposes the Parliament to accept two different times, in both the chambers, every alteration of constitution, and, if it passes with less than 2/3 of the parliament votes, to be accepted by national referendum. Since the opposition coalition is clearly opposed to the new constitution reform, defined as dangerous, separatist, and somehow antidemocratic [9]. A prospective referendum, if the new constitution should pass the parliamentary procedure to be enacted, might be called for 2006 or 2007. The first procedure step, that is the approvance by the Chamber of Deputies, was done successfully for October 2004, but with less than 2/3 of the chamber votes. [10] The second favourable polling, in Senate, was done on March 2005. [11]

It is good to note that the House of Freedoms' proposal of constitutional reform has been done in a unilateral way, whereas the current Italian Constitution was promulgated, after the World War II, by all the national political forces (except the fascists), including socialists, communists, christian democrats and others.

The 2005 regional elections

On April 3 and 4, 2005, regional elections were held in 13 Italian regions (election in Basilicata was put off until 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. For more information about the results of the regional elections, see Elections in Italy.

The electoral system

Italy has currently in use a mixed electoral system, in which the 75% of the seats are assigned by uninominal voting system, and the remaining 25% by proportional system.

There are attempts in that sense, especially from the smallest government parties, to change this electoral system, who of course end up by favour the biggest parties.

The majoritary part of the seats are assigned by several local elections, who covers each small zone of the country, permitting actually to have a representative for every country area.

The Italian Chamber of Deputies is composed by 630 seats, while the Senate of Republic is by 315 (the exact half).

See also

• Elections in Italy
• Politics of Italy
• European Parliament Election, 2004 (Italy)