EMIGRANTS AND THE ELECTION

The elections turned out a little tighter than I originally thought (see last post). It seems, though, that due in great part to the “voto all’estero” (the vote from abroad), the center-left coalition headed by Romano Prodi won. Prodi now has the near-impossible job of trying to form a government out of an almost-equally divided house and senate—never mind trying to lead an almost-equally divided electorate.

We just came back from spending a week in Rome. We arrived the day after the elections and already the city was plastered with posters from all political parties, each claiming victory and thanking Italians (and in the case of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, people from the Lazio region) for their votes. Here are some of the slogans:

“Forza Lazio! Forza Italia! Più voti nel Lazio! Più voti nell’Italia!”
(From Berlsuconi’s party’s poster. Berlusconi’s claim here that he has more votes—più voti--and then his public demand for a recount eerily reminded us of Bush-Gore in 2000.)

“Grazie a tutte e tutti” (The Rifondazione Comunista poster, noteworthy for its emphasis on using both the masculine and feminine form of “tutti” — everyone. It’s grammatically unnecessary, but a nice feminist touch.)

“Oggi è un’altro giorno...grazie” ( “Today is another day…thanks, ” La Margherita”, the party headed by Francesco Rutelli and most closely aligned with Prodi.)

Back in Campania, Prodi's coalition won, though it was close (2%). Interestingly, Prodi carried the province of Avellino by a wider margin (8%). In Cairano, Berlusconi's coalition won, though again, only by a few votes. It should be pointed out that Berlusconi’s coalition includes the separatist Lega Nord party, well known for its racist comments about southerners


The ”voto all’estero” is an important and unexpected twist in the election. Berlusconi’s government fought the last few years to give Italian citizens living abroad the right to vote for special representation (absentee voting is otherwise not allowed). The general consensus among pundits and journalists was that these votes would go to Berlusconi’s coalition because, it was thought, the majority of Italians abroad are conservative politically and since it was Berlusconi who changed the law.

However, in the end the foreign vote went mainly to Prodi’s coalition, for both the Senate and the Camera. In the Camera, 7 seats went to the left and 4 to the right. In the North and Central America precinct, which includes the U.S. and Canada, the left and right split the two available Camera seats (the right won in the U.S., but the left won in Canada and elsewhere). Four of the six extra-Italian senators went to Prodi’s coalition, one to Berlusconi’s (the other, from Argentina, went independent thus far, but is expected to clarify his position any moment now).


Finally, this was the first election where immigrants’ rights issues in Italy were a focal point of the campaign (Prodi claiming he would make it easier for immigrants to become Italian citizens; Berlusconi pushing for firmer border policies, for instance). And it was Italian emigrants with their first chance to vote from abroad who made the difference.