The Euro crisis and national elections in Malta and Italy

Abstract

Following an introduction by Dr Carammia, Dr Tronconi started his talk by discussing the results of the Italian general election of 24- 25 February 2013, and its impact on the Italian political and party systems. He entered into the various complexities of the ”bonus adjusted” proportional representation of the Italian electoral system, showing how the sum of regional-level majority bonuses employed to elect the Senate is likely to result into a partisan composition different from the House of Representatives, where there is only one national-level majority bonus. This raises a number of problems, because according to the Italian Constitution the two Chambers have the same powers and, crucially, they both take part in the investiture of governments. Dr Tronconi moved on to the particularities of the last election. He focused especially on the ‘phenomenon’ of the Five Star Movement (M5S, Movimento Cinque Stelle), the political party (self-described as a ‘movement’) founded by Beppe Grillo which was running for its first national election. Even though the polls pointed to a good result, the large amount of support obtained by the M5S – 25.5 percent of all votes – surprised commentators and politicians alike. In terms of voting results, therefore, three main blocks emerged from the elections: the M5S, the traditional centre-left (29.5%) and centre-right (29.1%). Both of the latter coalitions lost a large amount of their share of votes to the M5S. The new block led by Prof .Mario Monti obtained only 10.1%. The tiny majority of votes obtained nationally by the centre-left coalition gave it the electoral bonus in the Chamber of Deputies, resulting in a clear majority of 55 percent of seats there. However, the system of regional bonuses resulted in a lack of majority in the Senate. As a consequence, the parliament was stuck for two months, while it also had to decide on the appointment of a new President of the Republic – that eventually led to the unprecedented re-election of President Giorgio Napolitano. The sum of political shock, lack of majority in the Senate, unwillingness of the M5S to enter in a coalition with or support a centre-left government, and the inability of the Partito Democratico to build any feasible alternative, resulted in the formation of Enrico Letta’s government, supported by the centre-right and centre-left coalitions and by Mario Monti’s block - an unexpected outcome and an unstable government. Dr Tronconi ended his talk by examining the M5S in greater detail. Following Dr. Tronconi’s discussion, Prof. Pace took the stand, and commenced his talk on the 2013 election in Malta. He first described the Maltese electoral system, and then entered into the main points of this year’s election results. Prof. Pace remarked that the electoral result was one of the most staggering results of the post-war period. A nine seat majority in Parliament, as obtained by the Labour Party, had not been seen for most of the post-war elections. Prof. Pace went on to provide some facts on past Maltese elections, starting from the election of 1921. Subsequently, Prof. Pace discussed the various factors which may have influenced the 2013 result and the Labour victory. These factors could form the basis of further studies for students of Malta’s electoral process. They included, amongst others, the fact that the Labour Party had a new leader, the long time in which the Nationalist Party had been in government, the better delivery of Labour’s political message, and Labour’s stands and offer of a solution on key issues of public concern such as those related to the provision of energy. The governing party seemed to be trailing behind the Opposition throughout the electoral campaign. Prof Pace also mentioned that for future research it may be interesting to study the trend that has been set of MEPs coming from the European Parliament to national politics for this seems to go against popular perceptions that national MPs seek an MEP job after they are done with national politics. It remains to be seen whether this trend continues in the future and how it compares with the rest of the EU member states, as well as what effects it will have on Malta’s political system. Following Dr Tronconi’s and Prof. Pace’s talks, a number of questions were taken from the audience and addressed by the speakers, resulting in a lively debate.