Italian Elections and Politics 2022 - Our Time to Schlein

[Antonio the Sixth]

Fourth round went through and still nothing came out of it. This time decided to abstain instead of voting blank for some reason, and the rest scattered around in a bunch of candidates. Pathetic stuff all around. I won't bother listing the tally because who the f**k cares.

[Antonio the Sixth]

This is getting absolutely pathetic, and no party leader is coming off well. Salvini is just flailing around pulling new names out of his ass without consulting anyone, Letta is saying no to everything without giving an indication of whom he might actually support, and Conte seems to be randomly scheming to double-cross him for no discernable reason. It shouldn't be so hard for the three to get together and hash it out.

[Antonio the Sixth]

It shouldn't be so hard for the three to get together and hash it out.

...and it looks like this is finally happening. The Big Three have just emerged from a confidential meeting, and will meet again in about an hour. Still no official announcement but rumors that progress is being made.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Apparently what the Big Three decided this evening is that the new president should be a woman. Which... actually narrows things quite a bit, barring an upset. Casellati was initially the strongest candidate as far as women went, but then Salvini tried to force her through, and the failure of that attempt leaves her candidacy dead in the water. That leaves Elisabetta Belloni, a prominent career civil servant with a focus on diplomacy and intelligence agencies. She's apparently well-liked across the board, so she makes a ton of sense as a compromise candidate. But it ain't done till it's done.

[Antonio the Sixth]

So since Belloni became the de-facto nominee the fault lines around her candidacy are starting to emerge. And those fault lines take us all the way back to... 2018. Don't ask me why, but it appears that the main forces that are pushing her are Lega and M5S (along with FdI, Meloni being apparently personally close with Belloni). Meanwhile, Renzi and FI have both come out against her, on the (fairly spurious to me) basis that it would be wrong for someone involved with intelligence agencies to become the head of state. PD has also indicated some doubts about her candidacy (despite Letta having been in the meeting that seemingly led to her naming), though not as explicitly.

So, long story short, we still have no clue what's going on here. If Belloni makes it through, that would seemingly create a rift in the government's majority, which might be a serious problem.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Jesus F**king Christ

So in a great redo of 2013, all the parties have officially begged Mattarella to stay. He hasn't accepted yet but from the looks of it it sounds like he will.

This is beyond pathetic, and if anyone had any sense of shame they'd all resign and f**k off.

[Antonio the Sixth]

In the meantime round 7 was another flop, with Mattarella crawling up to 387 votes but 400 or so abstentions.

Round 8 should be the one that actually reelects him.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well, round 8 has begun, and by all accounts it should be a landslide for Mattarella.

He really should have told the parties to f**k off and get their act together. But oh well. He has more sense of duty than this country deserves.

[Antonio the Sixth]

There counting right now, right?

About to begin.

[Antonio the Sixth]

There counting right now, right?

About to begin.

Let's see if it's the final one.

It should be. Mattarella is expected to get over 800 votes.

Edit: here it starts.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Live count here: https://www.la7.it/dirette-tv

[Antonio the Sixth]

He should let them re-elect him and then either immediately resign or dissolve parliament and then resign.

That would be the ultimate troll move. If only...

[Antonio the Sixth]

Mattarella just crossed 300 votes with about 400 votes counted. A bit more scattered votes than anticipated, so at this point it looks like he'll be around 750 rather than 800.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Mattarella crossed 505. Here we go, it's official.

[Antonio the Sixth]

It's done. 759 votes for Mattarella.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Full Round 8 results:

Sergio Mattarella 759
Carlo Nordio 90
Nino Di Matteo 37
Silvio Berlusconi 9
Elisabetta Belloni 6
Mario Draghi 5
Pier Ferdinando Casini 5
Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati 4
Others 32

Blank 25
Null 13
Didn't vote 24

[Antonio the Sixth]

I wonder whether he'll serve the full seven year term or pull a Napolitano and resign in a year or two?

That's the big question. I sure hope he doesn't resign when the right-wing parties have a majority, because it would be the nightmare scenario.

[Antonio the Sixth]

will they be push for a directly elected president after this?

I hope not considering the nature of the Italian presidency, but never underestimate the stupidity of institutional reform ideas in il bel paese.

Yeah, the very last thing Italy needs is more personalization of politics.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The peak of the Atlas brand of dweebery is watching random old election coverage from other countries, preferably in a language you don't understand. I couldn't find much for Italy, but what I did find was fascinating. Italian election nights used to be wild.

A clip from "TG1 Non Stop Elections 1983", the coverage of the first network for the general elections of 1983. The entertainment part is entrusted to Raffaella Carrà and Beppe Grillo while Bruno Vespa takes care of the vote counting. Raffaella opens the programme with "Ballo Ballo" and then welcomes the first great guest, Bonnie Tyler, who performs "Total Eclipse of the Heart".

With how long it takes America to count the votes, I'm sure their networks could squeeze in a musical number or two.

Here's coverage of the 2018 elections, if you're curious!

[Antonio the Sixth]

Changed the title by popular (ie, one particular person's (very insistent)) demand. Couldn't think of anything quippy so enjoy the next reminder in Italy's always thick* electoral calendar.

*Almost as thick as Giuseppe Conte's skull. There, I found a quip.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Wow, the referendum turnout is pathetic. I knew there was a chance of not meeting the quorum, but I was expecting at least a good 40% would at least bother to vote. Justice is traditionally a very politicized issue in Italy, and you'd expect at least core right wing voters to be hyped up about sticking it to those lefty judges. But nope, seems like nobody cared in the end. Oh well. I wasn't too invested in the outcome, but this is still bad for democracy.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Polls have now officially closed! And I am about to count and count and count. The Yes/No splits of the referenda will surely be interesting, but they are all going to miss the quorum and by a lot so in a sense we already know what to expect.

Were you a polling volunteer in this election?

Yes, I mentioned this in the previous page (and to be clear, we are paid volunteers).

Ah, sorry, I must have spiked that info. Yes, I know it's paid volunteers, here they are paid around 52 euros, I presume that it's more in Italy.

The results seem to be as expected between the "center-left" and "center-right". No major changes, expect with the win of the right in Palermo. About the referendums, what was the point of them? I know they were about judicial changes, but was a referendum really necessary?

I should be paid 208 euros this year, so yes much more.

It is arguable whether the referenda were "really necessary" and indeed a good part of the centre-left opposition to the whole thing was that it overlapped with the Cartabia reform and made the latter harder to work about. But I did think they were good questions for the most part so why not?

208 euros?!? Wow!, if that was the case here, I would sign up to be a poll worker in every election.

I believe that referendums should be held when there's a topic that really divides and could create big changes, and in even some cases, I also have doubts about it's effectiveness. But, it is what it is. Despite the dismal turnout, the changes will be implemented, right? Or there's any kind of threshold?

No, <50% turnout means the referendums are not valid.

[Antonio the Sixth]

So overall seems like a pretty disappointing day for the right and a surprisingly decent one for the left? Interesting. That would continue the trend of right-wing underperformance in local elections starting in 2020.

[Antonio the Sixth]

New political sequence, new title. As often happens in Italian politics, things have escalated quickly. Having elections now sure would be an interesting turn of things, or in other words a massive sh*tshow. We'll see if Conte is bluffing but he might actually be deluded enough to think it's a good idea.

[Antonio the Sixth]

172 votes are actually more than enough for a majority, so I'm not sure what the fretting is all about. Just kick M5S out and carry on.