Vote results in Italy

The vote is in

This past week-end Italy had her final run-off elections for various offices around the country. This run-off was for those offices where a winner was not declared during the election held during the first week-end in June. Both the comune and Provincia of Ascoli Piceno had run-off elections pitting the far-right (fascist?) candidate against moderate or leftist candidates. In both instances the far-right candidate won.

You can see the results at the site for the newspaper Corriere della Sera where they also list the parties that supported each candidate. From our experience living in Italy I believe some of the groups who are listed for the Mayor, Castelli, and Provincial President, Celani, lean heavily towards fascist ideas. Not a good prospect for the country, especially those of us who are extracomunitari.

There was almost a 20% drop in voter turn-out for these run-off elections compared to the early June elections of close to 75%. Several articles have deemed this some of the lowest turn-out for an Italian election. During the last US presidential election the turn-out of just fewer than 60% was claimed as historically high.

Just before we left Italy the country was busy with preparations for the elections and several friends and family members were directly involved in politicking. It is interesting to see what the results of their efforts have been now that the final counts are in.