Home > Italy’s Centre-Left Up By Two Per Cent

Italy’s Centre-Left Up By Two Per Cent

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 22 March 2005
2 comments

Elections-Elected Italy European Left

The Unione (Union) of centre-left opposition parties is leading in the early stages of Italy’s electoral race, according to a poll by Istituto Piepoli published in La Stampa. 48 per cent of respondents would vote for the alliance.

Former president of the European Commission Romano Prodi is expected to lead Unione-which includes the Olive Tree United List (Ulivo) and the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)-into the next parliamentary
election, tentatively scheduled for May 2006.

The governing coalition of centre-right parties-which includes prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forwards Italy (Forza Italia)-garners the backing of 46 per cent of respondents. Berlusconi has been in office since June 2001. The media mogul had previously served for less than eight months in 1994 and 1995.

In the 2001 ballot, Berlusconi’s House of Freedom
(Casa) elected 282 lawmakers to the 475-seat Chamber of
Deputies, the largest majority for an Italian
government since World War II.

Earlier this month, Italian agent Nicola Calipari was
killed in Iraq when American troops mistakenly opened
fire at a convoy carrying him and Italian journalist
Giuliana Sgrena. Calipari had negotiated the release of
Sgrena, who had been abducted by a militant group.

Yesterday, Berlusconi requested "a frank and reciprocal
recognition of eventual responsibility" for the
incident, and said there was no relationship "between
the nationality of those taken hostage and their
country’s presence in Iraq."

Polling Data

If the election took place this Sunday, what party
would you support?

Union (Unione)

Feb. 2005
48%

Dec. 2004
47%

Olive Tree United List (Ulivo)

Feb. 2005
34.5%

Dec. 2004
33.5%

Popular Alliance (UDEUR)

Feb. 2005
1%

Dec. 2004
1%

Party of Italian Communists (PCI)

Feb. 2005
2.5%

Dec. 2004
2.5%

Green / Sunflower (Verdi / Girasole)

Feb. 2005
2%

Dec. 2004
2%

Italy of Values (Lista di Pietro / Occhetti)

Feb. 2005
1.5%

Dec. 2004
1.5%

Communist Refoundation Party (PRC)

Feb. 2005
6.5%

Dec. 2004
6.5%

House of Freedom (Casa)

Feb. 2005
46%

Dec. 2004
47.5%

Forwards Italy (Forza Italia)

Feb. 2005
20.5%

Dec. 2004
22%

National Alliance (AN)

Feb. 2005
13%

Dec. 2004
12.5%

Union of Christian and Centre-Democrats (UDC)

Feb. 2005
5.5%

Dec. 2004
5.5%

Northern League (LN)

Feb. 2005
4.5%

Dec. 2004
5%

New Italian Socialist Party (Nuovo PSI)

Feb. 2005
2%

Dec. 2004
2%

Republicans (R)

Feb. 2005
0.5%

Dec. 2004
0.5%

Marco Panella / Emma Bonino List

Feb. 2005
2%

Dec. 2004
2%

Social Alternative (AS)

Feb. 2005
1%

Dec. 2004
1%

Other

Feb. 2005
3%

Dec. 2004
2.5%

Source: Istituto Piepoli / La Stampa Methodology:
Telephone interviews to 500 Italian adults, conducted
on Feb. 28, 2005. No margin of error was provided.

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewItem&itemID=6265

Forum posts

  • I have learned through recent experience that polls mean nothing, it is who and how the votes are counted on election day that matter. I hope you aren’t using computers to count your votes. Berlusconi doesn’t seem all that trustworthy considering he said he was bringing the troops home and then changed his mind after a phone call from Bush.

    The last US election was clearly fraudulent. Last Australian election results were off from the polls- probably election fraud but buried. I think all real democracies need to go back to the original voting practice of one paper ballot, one see through ballot box...like in the Ukraine. In the US we were given million dollar voting machines to streamline voting, but instead they created extremely long lines and disinfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters. If the folks in ohio were given paper ballots, there would have been no lines. These same grossly overpriced machines could only hold 3,000 votes in some cases, so votes were erased. Can anyone imagine a computer that can only hold 3,000 votes? It makes no sense.

    Good Luck Italy, hope you all are smarter than us silly Americans!

    • Italy can count. In all and read this: all of the European countries weird things like in the U.S.
      registration process for voters does not exist. Moreover the slightest doubt would lead to a recount
      or to a revote in this specific area.
      Europeans are not smarter then their American counterparts, but at least their voting systems
      can not be disturbed. It would be unthinkable having policemen or party members in front
      of voting office threatening citizens like in the American south where black voters were criminalized
      by the so called police.
      Italy will remove the troops regardless, whether Berlusconi stays in office or not.