Main Parties in Italy Hear Alarm Bells After Vote
from the NY Times:
ROME The results of local runoff elections across Italy are being widely analyzed not as a measure of what Italians want, but what they no longer care for.
The conservative political parties that governed Italy until November found their support waning throughout the country, and an upstart political movement that campaigned by lambasting the political elite took one major northern city, Parma, as well as several smaller ones in voting Sunday and Monday.
But the most analyzed number to emerge from the elections, held in 941 cities, was the low turnout: 51.3 percent.
......(snip)......
Though it triumphed only in Parma and three smaller towns, the undisputed winner of the vote was the Five Star Movement, a fledgling grass-roots alliance of citizens committed to changing Italys entrenched political system by offering an Internet-driven, consensus-based alternative. The average age of the four mayors elected from the movement was 31 years, about half the average age of Parliament. ................(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/world/europe/main-parties-in-italy-hear-alarm-bells-after-vote.html