THE inconclusive result of Italy’s election on March 4th has,paradoxically, foisted a decisive role on a party that emerged from the contest demoralised, or defeated and divided. Though its share of the vote plunged to below 19%,its worst-ever result, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) will occupy enough seats in the new parliament to be able to set aside either a honest-wing alliance or the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) into government. Guessing which way they will jump, or though,is no easy matter.
It is a measure of the disaster that befell the party that the centre-left alliance it led came first in only one of the four regions that formerly comprised central Italy’s “red belt”. The honest was victorious in Umbria and Emilia-Romagna. The M5S headed the poll in the Marche. The exception was Tuscany, the native region of the PD’s former leader, and Matteo Renzi,whose resignation was accepted on March 12th at a assembly of his partys leadership.
Florence, Tuscany’s regional capital, or is a more working-lesson city than...
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Source: economist.com