TWO PARTIES SUFFICE:

A Revolution for Italy's Parliament (Michael Braun, 4/15/08, Der Spiegel)

You couldn't call what happened in Italy on Monday merely a win -- it was a triumph. With an almost 7-percent advantage in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, almost 8 percent in the Senate and a clear majority in both houses, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has returned to the country's political helm.

Berlusconi's bloc succeeded in winning over 45 percent of the vote. The center-right People of Freedom party (PdL), founded by Berlusconi especially for this election, alone garnered about 40 percent of the vote, while future coalition partner the Northern League attracted about 6 percent in the Senate and 6 percent in the lower house -- a clear improvement over its 2006 result. [...]

He knows the right side of Italy's political spectrum better than anyone, and he knew that, even as the voters were disappointed with his five years in office from 2001 to 2006, they feared the left -- even a moderate Catholic leftist politician like Prodi -- even more. [...]

Two years ago, the two communist parties and the Greens managed to get a good 10 percent of the vote between them. This time, they ran as part of the left-wing federation The Left -- the Rainbow.

But the new unity project failed to convince the electorate. Some preferred to vote for Veltroni's center-left party in a bid to stop Berlusconi. Others simply stayed at home, because they had not forgiven the radical left for taking part in Prodi's coalition. In the end, the federation not only failed to reach the 8-percent hurdle for the Senate, but -- against all predictions -- also missed the 4-percent hurdle in the Chamber of Deputies. For the first time since 1945, the communists will no longer be represented in Italy's parliament.

And also for the first time -- and in Italy this counts as a real revolution -- there are only four parliamentary groups in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, meaning that the era of having 23 to 30 parties fighting it out between themselves is over. On the left, there is Veltroni's Democratic Party, in the middle the UDC, and on the right Berlusconi's People of Freedom and the Northern League. The new constellation will bring an unusual clarity and simplicity to Italian politics.

That seems an impossibility.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 15, 2008 7:16 AM