Tomorrow (February 24th) and Monday (February 25th) in Italy will be held national general elections, a very important step in country’s political life and a strong signal for international financial markets about the choices that Italy will do in the next five years.
There is something good in this day. Political campaign is over. It’s a day of silence on the traditional media (TV and radio) that the most part of the population salute as a rare moment of peace. No more silly question and stupid answers to be heared, no more hysteria from the candidates.
But tomorrow the competition becames something more, it’s up to the voters to choose side and cast their ballots for one or two parties. Or maybe three. Election polls are forbidden in this week, so we don’t know about the most recent shift in the political decisions nor we know about the impact of the last scandals.
What we know is that the government to come, no matter who will lead it, will be set up on a compromise. No party got real hopes to achieve absolute majority, a well known fact that speak volumes about the sensation of uncertainty that dominates the political debate. There were very few facts and lesser ideas in this campaign, another bad sign for the next prime minister.
Almost everything has been put on stakes, even long time achievements like the use of the euro currency or the italian commitment to EU general objectives. Hard questions like how to fix the national economy or how to improve the number of employed people has been left in second order, the most part of the general discussion devoted to taxes and/or how to cut them down.
The public image of Italy worldwide was never too shiny in the last twenty years, let’s hope that next Tuesday we will give out some good news.
Angelo Benuzzi 