I was glad to see that there was interest here over the weekend on the elections in Greece and France. As has been discussed here and elsewhere, the results point to a general European distaste for austerity, even in countries that have suffered less during the economic crisis.
Italy has been a big question mark for some time now, as we sit in Purgatory with a technical government, led by Mario Monti. Most here (I'm in Rome) like him as a person and are happy to see the ethical adjustment. The austerity measures, however, are beginning to cause significant social problems, beginning with a startling number of suicides by people who are losing their small businesses or are unable to pay debts and risk losing their homes.
That's why today's local elections in places like Genoa, Parma, Palermo and Verona are important as indicators of what voters are thinking in view of elections which are to take place in 2013.
If you're interested in checking them out yourself, here's a link to La Repubblica's election page.
The upshot of it is this: with the exception of Verona, there will be runoff elections largely excluding center right parties. In several cases there will be a run off between the center left candidate (dominated by the Partito Democratico) and a candidate from the new Movimento 5 Stelle, or 5 Star Movement.
The Movimento 5 Stelle isn't a party--at least according to their claims--but individual activists who agree to a set of principles in order to raise ethical standards, reduce bureaucratic confusion, and change the country's ecological and energy profile. It's a movement that has attracted a lot of disaffected left wing voters, though its leader, the comedian Beppe Grillo has political perspective that could best be defined as libertarian (kind of like Bill Maher).
No one expected the Movimento's candidates to get over 10% anywhere, but they more than doubled that expectation. Many established parties kind of laughed off Grillo and the Movimento, but it looks now like they are going to be a party to be reckoned with in the next national elections.
So, in sum, like France Italy appears to be shifting definitively to the left--about time after the disastrous years under Berlusconi--and like Greece looking to smaller, unrepresented parties rather than those long established for solutions to current problems.
It's about to get interesting.