by InTrieste
Italy’s general election will be held on Sunday 25 September, with polling booths open around the country from 07.00 to 23.00.
As a result of the 2020 constitutional referendum, the size of Italy’s parliament will be reduced to 400 members of the chamber of deputies and 200 elected members of the senate, down from 630 and 315 respectively.
Leading in the latest opinion polls is the far-right Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) party of Giorgia Meloni who is poised to become Italy’s first woman prime minister after the general election on 25 September.
The FdI is the only party in the election race that did not form part of the national unity government of outgoing premier Mario Draghi who resigned in July after three coalition parties withdrew their support.
Meloni’s nationalist-conservative party dominates an alliance comprising the right-wing Lega of Matteo Salvini and the centre-right Forza Italia of Silvio Berlusconi.
Opinion polls give the FdI about 25 per cent of the vote, suggesting that with the combined votes of the Lega and Forza Italia – about 12 per cent and 8 per cent respectively – the rightist bloc stands to win a solid majority in both houses of parliament.
Joining the parties of Salvini and Meloni in the rightist alliance is the conservative Forza Italia, led by Silvio Berlusconi (85), a man who needs little introduction.
The PD is currently in second place, according to the final opinion polls before a pre-election blackout, on about 21 per cent of the vote. Leader of the PD since March 2021, Enrico Letta has struggled during the election campaign to build up a united front of left and centrist parties to challenge the seemingly unstoppable march of the right.
Letta’s hopes of a strong center-left alliance didn’t go well when the leader of the small centrist Azione party Carlo Calenda (49) parted ways with the PD in August, just days after joining forces. Calenda has united with former premier Matteo Renzi (47), leader of another small centrist party Italia Viva, to form a liberal, pro-European alliance which presents itself as a terzo polo, or third pole, in the political center.
The two-party terzo polo is running independently, as is the populist MoVimento 5 Stelle (M5S) party led by former premier Giuseppe Conte (58), on 13 to 14 per cent in the final opinion polls.
For full details about voting see Italy’s interior ministry website.
