Polls & Research

Prodi’s Centre-Left Union Still Second in Italy

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Italy’s governing coalition of left-wing parties is still trailing the opposition alliance of right-leaning political organizations, according to a poll by Ekma Ricerche Srl. 49.4 per cent of respondents would vote for the House of Freedom (Casa), in the next election to the legislature, while 46.5 per cent would support the Union (Unione).

In addition, 3.5 per cent of respondents would vote for the Union of Christian and Centre-Democrats (UDC). Support for the House of Freedom was practically unchanged since September, while backing for the Union increased by 1.5 points.

Italian voters renewed the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in April 2006. The Union secured 348 seats in the lower house and 158 seats in the upper house. The victory put an end to a House of Freedom government, headed by Silvio Berlusconi.

In May 2006, Romano Prodi was formally appointed as prime minister. The Union leader had previously served as head of government from May 1996 to October 1998.

On Oct. 14, Rome mayor Walter Veltroni won a primary election and will become the leader of the Democratic Party (PD), which merges several centre-left political organizations. Veltroni declared: "We are realizing a dream. We are, as of today, the most important party in the country."

In a book written by Bruno Vespa to be released later this month, House speaker Fausto Bertinotti refers to Berlusconi’s project to unite Italian conservatives, saying, "Berlusconi achieved a reunification of the Italian right on economic and social grounds, melding liberalism and populism."

Polling Data

Voting Intention - Chamber of Deputies

	Oct. 2007	Sept. 2007	Jul. 2007
House of Freedom (Centre-Right) Forwards Italy (Forza Italia) National Alliance (AN) Northern League (LN) Liberal Reformers (RL) Christian Democracy (DC) Storace’s Right (La D di S) Other centre-right	49.4%	49.7%	49.4%
Union (Centre-Left) Democratic Party (PD) The Rose in the First (RnP) Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) Green Federation (Verdi) Party of Italian Communists (PCI) Italy of Values (Lista di Pietro) Popular Alliance (UDEUR) Italian Socialist Party of Craxi (PSI-Craxi) Other centre-left	46.5%	45.0%	44.7%
Union of Christian and Centre-Democrats (UDC)	3.5%	3.5%	5.0%
Other parties	1.3%	1.8%	0.9%

Source: Ekma Ricerche Srl
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 800 Italian adults, conducted on Oct. 15, 2007. No margin of error was provided.