Administrative
elections: A second ballot is needed to determine
Florence’s next mayor. After last weekend’s elections, the two main candidates
for Florence mayor in the second ballot are: centre-left candidate and former
president of the province, Matteo Renzi, who received 47.57 percent of the
vote, and mayoral candidate for the centre-right, Giovanni Galli, who got
approximately 32 percent of the vote on June 6 and 7. The other candidates in
the running on June 6 and 7 were: Valdo Spini with 8.35 percent of the vote;
Ornella De Zordo with 4.10 percent; Mario Razanelli with 3.30 percent; Marco
carraresi with 2.15 percent; Alfonso Bonafede with 1.82 percent; Paolo Poggi
with 0.37 percent; Maria Lascialfari with 0.30 percent. Some 73.86 percent of
Florentines flocked to the polls. A second ballot is set for June 21.
Provincial
elections:
Andrea Barducci was elected president of the province of Florence last
weekend with 55.47 percent of the vote. Barducci, who represents the Democratic
Party (PD), the Italy of Values party (IdV), the Sinistra per la provincia
party and the Communisti fiorentine party, received more votes than the
centre-left candidate, Samuele Bardini, who ran for the People of Freedom (PdL)
and Northern League (LN) parties and got 30.73 percent of votes. Other
candidates running for provincial president were: Andrea Calò with 5.93
percent; Federico Tondi with 4.55 percent; Claudia Agati with 1.28 percent;
Simone Faini with 1.05 percent; and Corrado Olivotti with 0.95 percent. Voter
turnout for the provincial elections was recorded at 75.37 percent.
European
Union (EU) elections: Italy’s centre-right parties
came out ahead in this weekend’s European elections, as in the most of the EU,
in a vote marked by record-breaking absenteeism and voter’s concerns over the
economic crisis. Only some 43 percent of European citizens voted on June 9 and
10. Even though voter turnout was a record low for Italy also, 6.4% percentage
points from 2004, it was still one of the best across the Europe. Two out of
three Italians, or 66.5% of eligible voters, flocked to the polls over the
weekend. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right PdL party came out on
top with 35.23 percent of the votes, yet it lost some ground compared to last
spring’s general elections. The PdL’s main ally, the Northern League (NL), was
one of the big winners, attaining its best result ever: some 10.21 percent of
votes compared to 8.3 percent in the 2008 general elections. For the
opposition, the PD slipped some, taking 26.14 percent of the vote, compared to
33.2 percent in last year’s general elections. The centre-left’s IdV party also
collected a record number of votes in these elections, claiming approximately 8
percent of the vote compared to 4.4 percent in 2008. The Union of Center (UDC)
party won 6.51 percent of the vote, an improvement over the 5.6 percent of
votes it got in 2008. All other parties on the Italian political spectrum
failed to break the 4 percent threshold on a national level.
