Center-left Premier Matteo
Renzi was sanguine on Monday as record low turnouts swept two of
his Democratic Party (PD) candidates to the governorships of the
wealthy north-central Emilia-Romagna region and the
impoverished, mob-ridden southern Calabria region in local
elections at the weekend.
Stefano Bonaccini won in Emilia-Romagna with over 49% of
the vote, compared to almost 30% for the Northern League's Alan
Fabbri, who was backed by centre-right parties.
In Calabria, Mario Gerardo Oliverio won with 61.3% while
the centre-right's Wanda Ferro took around 23.7% of the votes.
But turnout was alarmingly low by Italian standards.
In Emilia-Romagna 37.7% of voters cast ballots, compared to
68% at regional elections in 2010 and 70% in May's European
elections. In Calabria the turnout was 44.1%, compared to 59.3%
at the previous regional elections and 45.5% in the European
elections.
"Turnout bad, results good," tweeted Renzi. "A clear 2-0".
"The low turnout is something to worry about, but it's
secondary," he told a press conference in Vienna after meeting
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.
"I'm not interested in planting flags, but in tackling the
problems of the Italian people".
However, added the premier, all of Italy's political
parties must think about what this means.
"The abstention rate is very high and that should make all
the parties reflect," said Renzi. "But the result went very well
for the PD. It's a clear win," he added.
His government's reformist agenda will not change, said the
premier. "We said beforehand that it wasn't a referendum on the
government," Renzi told RAI radio. "Even more so following this
clear result. The government's agenda isn't changing, although
we are aware that, if we all get rid of the culture of
whimpering, Italy has a role to play".
Renzi added he is undaunted by the growing popularity of
the separatist Northern League under new leader Matteo Salvini
after it claimed over 20% of the vote in Emilia-Romagna.
"While the centre-right discusses its plight, we are
changing Italy. After 20 years of failures, including those of
the League, we are working for the country and come election
time, you'll see which is stronger," Renzi said.
Earlier on Monday, Salvini, who became head of the League
almost a year ago, said the Renzi "balloon is deflating" while
the League was "flying".
One loser in Sunday's elections was the anti-establishment
5-Star Movement (M5S), which took a serious hit, failing to win
a single seat in the Calabria regional assembly and seeing its
share of the total vote plunge to about 5%, well down from its
21.5% share in the May vote for European Parliament, according
to results.
In a post on his blog, Grillo attributed the debacle to the
fact that in his view, citizens were rejecting government
policy, which reflects the country's "lost democracy".
A prominent MP from within Berlusconi's party said the
party must get rid of its current candidates and revamp itself.
"I sincerely hope no one will dare minimize or seek alibis for
the dramatic results in Calabria and Emilia Romagna," said
Raffaele Fitto, a one-time confidant of Berlusconi who now leads
a dissenting minority within FI that is not happy with the fact
that the ex-premier has entered into negotiations over electoral
law reform with Renzi.
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