Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05ROME3996
2005-12-06 08:21:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Rome
Cable title:  

ELECTORAL REFORM CREATES INTRA-COALITION BATTLES

Tags:  PGOV IT ITALY NATIONAL ELECTIONS 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ROME 003996 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV IT ITALY NATIONAL ELECTIONS
SUBJECT: ELECTORAL REFORM CREATES INTRA-COALITION BATTLES

REF: A) ROME 3442
B) ROME 3936

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ROME 003996

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV IT ITALY NATIONAL ELECTIONS
SUBJECT: ELECTORAL REFORM CREATES INTRA-COALITION BATTLES

REF: A) ROME 3442
B) ROME 3936


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Political strategists tell us that
electoral reform legislation likely to be approved by the
Italian Senate in the coming weeks will force coalition
members to run against each other in the 2006 electoral
campaign. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his centrist
coalition partner Pier Ferdinando Casini have already
exchanged barbed comments and the Center-Left is famously
disunited, as well. Intra-coalition disputes do not
necessarily mean the coalition is about to rupture. A
tightening campaign between the Center-Left and the Center-
Right and intra-coalition competition mean we should prepare
for strong campaign rhetoric, even among presumed friends.
END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) PM Silvio Berlusconi's Center-Right coalition
pushed electoral reform legislation through the Chamber of
Deputies on October 13 (REF A). The primary component of
the reform is a change from a mixed
proportional/majoritarian voting system to an entirely
proportional system. It is widely expected that the Senate
will approve the legislation in the next few weeks.
Politicians from both the Center-Right and Center-Left
already have changed campaign strategies accordingly.

--------------
ELECTORAL REFORM CREATES INTERNAL COMPETITION
--------------


3. (SBU) A proportional electoral system with an electoral
list means each party receives seats in parliament according
to the percentage of votes it receives in the general
election. The system for the Chamber of Deputies and the
Senate will be significantly different (SEPTEL),but both
will use a list-based proportional system to determine the
number of seats in the respective chamber.


4. (SBU) A Forza Italia (FI) electoral manager told Poloff
in September that a proportional electoral system would free
Berlusconi to campaign as the head of his political party,
FI, and not as the head of a broader coalition. As such, he
said Berlusconi could blame perceived policy failures on his
coalition allies and promote himself as an alternative. The
FI official told Poloff that individual parties in the
Center-Left or Center-Right were more likely to gain votes
at the expense of a coalition ally than from the opposition.
For example, he said Forza Italia is more likely to capture
voters from coalition partner National Alliance (AN) than
from the Democrats of the Left (DS). He said campaign
tactics would be designed to exploit those opportunities.


5. (U) Mario Landolfi, former AN spokesman and current
Minister of Communications, said to the press that the
Center-Right had developed a three-pronged attack. He
explained that in the electoral campaign, Berlusconi, Casini
and Fini would each campaign according to his own strategy,
under a unified coalition theme.

--------------
ELECTION FIREWORKS HAVE ALREADY STARTED
--------------


6. (SBU) The national electoral campaign has already
started. Though the public airing of internal coalition
disputes is common, Chamber of Deputies President and Union
of the Christian Democrats of the Center (UDC) party leader
Pier Ferdinando Casini made the first strong rhetorical
attack of the season on November 27. Casini said, "We
cannot tell the Italians what they want to hear: that we
have the magic recipe. Italians are tired of illusionists."
This was seen as a direct attack on Berlusconi. The
following day Berlusconi responded with irritation to
journalists that he did not think Casini was referring to
him. Berlusconi continued with his own criticism of former
UDC Party Secretary Marco Follini, saying, "for the first
time in history I completed government programs despite
Follini and his friends."


7. (SBU) The Center-Left, with its coalition including
relative conservatives and unreformed communists, is
famously less united than the Center-Right. REF B reports
on the dispute between the reformist and radical elements of
the Center-Left regarding Italian troop deployments to Iraq.
Battles exist even within the radical parties, as well, with
the Greens trying to show themselves more anti-war than the
Communist Renewal Party to gain a few votes. Competition
among smaller parties is particularly intense since a single
percentage point increase could mean the difference between
seats in parliament and political irrelevance.


8. (SBU) COMMENT: With opinion polls showing the Center-
Left's lead slipping to a statistical dead heat with the
Center-Right, the 2006 electoral campaign will be fiercely
fought. The reintroduction of a proportional electoral
system will increase competition among parties within the
same coalition and add to the fireworks. The two examples
cited above are representative of many other intra-coalition
battles, and we should not be shocked to see even stronger
attacks on members of the same coalition. END COMMENT.

SPOGLI