Premier's party in fix over March vote
Fight on against exclusions in upcoming regional elections
04 March, 16:16
(ANSA) - Rome, March 4 - Premier Silvio Berlusconi's People
of Freedom (PdL) party called on supporters to join a street
rally on Thursday in protest against court rulings barring its
candidates from running in Lombardy and the Rome area in
regional elections this month.As party officials organised the rally in the historic centre of Rome, the incumbent president of the Lombardy region Roberto Formigoni told reporters his lawyers had appealed to the TAR regional court against a ruling barring him from taking part in the March 28-29 elections.
A Milan appeals court on Wednesday said Formigoni's civic list, linked with the PdL and the Northern League party, should be excluded from the poll because of bureaucratic irregularities involving nearly 100 signatures.
If TAR also decides against, Formigoni can still file another appeal with the state administrative tribunal.
But a final decision would be needed before March 13 - the cutoff for the publication of electoral lists - to allow the PdL to run in the Rome province.
Formigoni said he was confident that the bureaucratic glitches can be overcome because, in the past, similar problems with signatures had been overlooked or approved on the basis of court rulings. The PdL's situation is further complicated by a decision by a Rome appeals court, also on Wednesday, upholding a ruling barring its candidates from running in the key Rome province - Lazio's biggest, with its 2.3 million voters. The court confirmed a decision by a court on Sunday, excluding Berlusconi's party from standing in the Rome area because party officials had missed a noon cutoff to present the candidates list on Saturday. The PdL has also taken the case to regional TAR court in Lazio and will appeal to the state administrative tribunal if that fails.
The PdL's candidate for the Lazio presidency, Renata Polverini - a trade union leader - urged supporters to join her at a rally in a historic Rome piazza to protest the PdL's exclusion. Meanwhile, President Giorgio Napolitano said he was "very concerned" about the problems that may arise if the PdL, the country's biggest party, is barred from elections in Lombardy and the Rome province.
Formigoni urged Napolitano to step in to solve the situation, saying he was responsible for "guaranteeing citizens' right to vote" and called on supporters to fax the president's office.
"They are trying to boot us out of the elections and prevent some 10 million people in Lombardy from voting for their (regional) president and the parties to which they have given 60% of their votes in the past," he said in a message posted on Youtube.
Berlusconi told aides at a meeting late Wednesday he was worried about the possible reactions of supporters if they are unable to vote.
The premier said last week that the elections are of strategic importance for his government.
The centre right had been optimistic of snatching Lazio away from the centre left after the region's ex-president, Piero Marrazzo, was forced to resign in October in a sex and drugs scandal.
Lombardy is one of the PdL's traditional strongholds.
Government sources said officials were considering the idea of drawing up a bill which would allow parties to hand in their lists again. This solution would be agreed with the centre-left opposition, which has, in large part, expressed its unease about running without the country's major party.
The leader of the Italy of Values (IdV) party, Antonio Di Pietro, however, has already ruled out the idea of finding a "legislative solution" to the problem, saying it would amount to "a coup".
photo: Roberto Formigoni
