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Prodi Punished
Italy's voters give their confused Government a bloody nose
Italy’s ruling Centre Left has been well rebuked over Romano Prodi’s apparent disdain for local democracy. Ten million people, a fifth of the electorate, were eligible to vote in last weekend’s local elections for seven provincial governors and the mayors of 862 towns and cities. Almost 75 per cent turned out — proving once again that the widespread Italian contempt for politicians does not translate into political apathy.
Mr Prodi insisted beforehand that these elections had no national significance, and underlined his point by declining to campaign. This was, on the contrary, the first grassroots test of the Prodi coalition’s popularity since its wafer-thin electoral victory a year ago. It failed the test spectacularly in Italy’s prosperous north, where Genoa was the only important exception in a regional surge to the right, and in the poor but socially conservative deep south. More startlingly, the Centre Right scored first-round outright victories even in “red-belt” regions such as Umbria, winning mayoral races in towns that have been leftwing bastions for half a century or more.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle1857196.ece