What Iceland’s election tells us about post-crisis European politics

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Iceland was supposed to be different. In allowing its banks to fail, neo-Keynesian economists have argued, Iceland avoided the fate of Ireland, which nationalized its banks and now faces a future with a very large public debt.  By devaluing its currency, the krónur, Iceland avoided the fate of countries like Estonia and others in southern Europe [...]

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Letta unveils government short on Berlusconi allies, long on economists

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Kevin Lees

White smoke from Rome — Italy has a new prime minister and a new government, just over two months after Italy’s inconclusive election results at the end of February. Just three days after Italian president Giorgio Napolitano invited Enrico Letta, deputy leader of the Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party), to form a new government, he has [...]

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Who is Enrico Letta?

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Earlier today, newly reelected Italian president Giorgio Napolitano appointed the deputy leader of the Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party), Enrico Letta, as Italy’s newest prime minister. Letta will now seek a ‘grand coalition’ government with Silvio Berlusconi and the Popolo della Libertà (PdL, People of Freedom).  Former centrosinistra (center-left) leader Pier Luigi Bersani repeatedly refused previous attempts at a ‘grand coalition’ in [...]

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Napolitano’s in (again), Bersani’s out, and Italy’s as dysfunctional as ever

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Kevin Lees

So after a humiliating Friday that saw Italy’s centrosinistra (center-left) revolt over the prospect of electing former prime minister Romano Prodi as president, Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of Italy’s main center-left party, Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party), has resigned — effective of the selection of Italy’s new president. Italy got that president on Saturday on the sixth [...]

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Prodi emerges as united center-left’s presidential candidate in Italy

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Kevin Lees

So with the third ballot completed in the election of Italy’s new president, the centrosinistra (center-left) has a new candidate for the fourth ballot — which can be won by a simple majority — former prime minister Romano Prodi. Prodi is no doubt the most successful member of the Italian center-left in postwar history, winning the 1996 [...]

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Presidential vote returns Italian politics to high operatic drama

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Voting began earlier today to select the new Italian president among the electoral college that’s gathered for that express purpose, and it’s left Italian politics once again in disarray, this time by revealing a split among the centrosinistra led by an incredibly powerless Pier Luigi Bersani after two ballots failed to elect a successor to Giorgio [...]

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Seven people who could be appointed Italy’s next technocratic prime minister

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Kevin Lees

With the failure of centrosinistra (center-left) leader Pier Luigi Bersani to form a government after a week of talks, Italian president Giorgio Napolitano now faces a tough 24 hours of consultations with the other key players in the Italian parliament. The path now becomes perilous — for Napolitano, above all, who remains just about the [...]

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Italian government now rests in hands of Napolitano, Italy’s president

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Kevin Lees

After a week of consultations with the various factions in Italy’s parliament, Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of the Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party) and of the broader centrosinistra (center-left) coalition, has failed to form a government, Bersani informed Italian president Giorgio Napolitano earlier today – although his coalition controls an absolute majority of seats in the lower house of [...]

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Pier Luigi Bersani has five days to build an Italian government

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Kevin Lees

When elections were called in Italy late in 2012, the centrosinistra (center-left) coalition united around Pier Luigi Bersani thought, on the basis of polls that showed Bersani (pictured above, left) with a wide lead, that it was nearly assured that they would easily win a five-year mandate to govern Italy. Instead, they may have won just [...]

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Zingaretti victory in Lazio caps subdued election for Italy’s far right

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Although relatively more attention has been on Italy’s general election and its aftermath and on Roberto Maroni’s victory in the Lombardy regional elections, Nicola Zingaretti’s victory as the next regional president of Lazio has launched the career of a new face of the next generation of Italy’s political leadership while delivering a stinging defeat to one [...]

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Maroni’s Lombardy victory consolidates Northern League’s regional hold

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Kevin Lees

European and global stock markets whipsawed earlier this week as investors contemplated the notion of gridlock in Italy’s hung parliament following the weekend’s inconclusive vote, and what that means for the eurozone’s future.  Predictably enough, European leaders took turns to warn Italy not to veer from its austerity-minded course, and Germany’s hapless social democratic leader [...]

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More thoughts on the final Italian election results and Italy’s electoral law

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Kevin Lees

For what it’s worth, we have the final results from the weekend’s Italian election from the interior ministry. As exit polls indicated and early resulted showed, Pier Luigi Bersani’s centrosinistra (center-left) coalition won 29.54% in the race for Italy’s lower house of parliament, the Camera dei Deputati (House of Deputies) to just 29.18% for former prime minister Silvio [...]

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Where Italy goes from today’s elections: a look at four potential outcomes

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Although we still don’t know exactly how the results of the weekend’s Italian election will turn out entirely, we know enough to say that Italy’s short-term future will be beset with gridlock. We know that, unless there’s a major change among the final results (very unlikely at this point, but still a possibility — La Repubblica‘s [...]

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Making sense of today’s Italian election results

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Kevin Lees

UPDATE, 7:30 p.m.: Here’s an additional piece on where Italy goes from here — a look at four potential outcomes to watch for in the days ahead. * * * * * The election results from Italy’s general election have largely been counted, and they’re backing up the exit polls (not the initial instant polls [...]

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The role of Italy’s south in this weekend’s election

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Although Lombardy in Italy’s north has been called the ‘Ohio’ of Italian politics — it’s a huge prize, given that it’s the most populous and richest region, and one of the few regions currently too close to call — Sicily might well be the ‘Florida’ of Italian politics. It’s the fourth-most populous region of Italy, [...]

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