The Guardian 26 April, 2006
Italian Communists make big gains
The general elections of April 9-10 saw a massive increase in communist representation in the Italian Parliament.
The Communist Refoundation Party vote increased both in percentage and in absolute numbers — from five percent achieved in 2001 to 5.8 percent in the Chamber of Deputies (from 1,867,712 votes to 2,229,604) and from 5.1 to 7.4 percent in the Senate.
It will now have 41 MPs in the lower house (up from 11) and 27 in the Senate (up from 3).
The Party of Italian Communists (a 1998 split from Refoundation) also fared well. From no respresentation in the previous Parliament it now has 16 MPs in the Lower House and 11 in the Senate (in coalition with the Greens).
This is the largest representation of Communists in the Italian Parliament since the 1991 dissolution of the old Italian Communist Party.
It was also the largest turnout of voters across Italy for 15 years, with a high 83.6 percent of the 47 million eligible casting a vote.
Under new election proportional representation (PR) rules for the lower house that were introduced last December, each party is able to elect a certain number of MPs depending on the amount of votes it receives.
The new system favours coalitions, parties belonging to a coalition must get more than two percent of the vote to be represented in parliament. Moreover, the winning coalition is automatically granted a so-called "majority award", that is, a minimum 340 of the 630 seats so that it receives a commanding majority.
A PR system continues to apply for the Senate, but the number of Senators (for a total of 315) allocated to parties depends on the vote reported in each single Italian region where there is also a regional "majority award".
For the first time Italians residing abroad (about one million) could cast a vote to be represented directly through six Senate seats and 12 deputies for the lower house.
After a long counting night, where the results seemed to contradict what the polls had predicted, Prodi’s Union won over the centre-right coalition in the Senate thanks to the votes cast by the Italians abroad (four Senators for the Union, one for the right coalition, and one independent, who has declared he will support the winning coalition).
In spite of a slim majority of votes for the right coalition, the left Union has gained a Senate majority of 159 to 156 seats.
The voting for the lower house was clearer and favourable for the Union. The centre-left won by a very small margin of 25,000 votes but under the rules will be in a position to implement its program with 348 of the 630 seats.
During the next few weeks the MPs’ agenda will include the installation of the new parliament which is to elect a new President of the republic, and finally, the new government has to be formed.
The Communist Refoundation Party will support a government with Romano Prodi as Prime Minister and will take part in it.
"A very important step has been taken", said the Party statement. "We defeated Berlusconi. Now we intend to lead Italy towards a change and help the rise of a new alternative left in Italy, which is now stronger after this election."