The Left hopes to entice those who haven’t voted yet to shine in a surprise and flip the polls
Livia Spezia already knows who she will vote for in the election this Sunday, although it cost her to make the decision. “You have your life and you can’t watch the campaign all day and all the things politicians say. I was confused, but yesterday I finally had a good time, armed myself with patience and started watching the programs and reading what the candidates had to say. I won’t tell you who I’ll vote for because it’s secret, but I must confess it won’t be center right. I don’t like the state reform Meloni and Salvini have in mind.” Sitting on a chair in one of the bars in Piazza della Rotonda, in central Rome, this 60-year-old official doesn’t take her eyes off the Pantheon as she talks endlessly about politics, an argument with which Italians are almost as passionate as football.
Until recently, Livia was among that 40% of voters who still don’t know who they’re going to vote for, or even if they’re going to the polls. According to the experts, they will make the decision in the last hours and even in the booth, when it is their turn to choose the ballot. The option they ultimately choose can determine the outcome of the election. That is exactly the burning nail to which Democratic Party (PD) candidate (PD), the main force of the center left, is clinging to Enrico Letta to dream of turning the polls around. “The undecided are the first party,” said Letta, overwhelmed by the polls unanimously predicting the victory of the right-wing alliance led by far-right Giorgia Meloni. Among progressive voters, it is particularly easy to find undecided voters, such as Elena, a teacher in her 50s who asks for help in determining the vote. “Advise me, who sees things from a certain distance and follows the campaign closely. I really don’t know what to do.”
In an effort to help voters, the University of Pisa and the European University Institute have developed a handy online application that allows you to find the party that best fits your understanding of politics by answering a series of questions. One of the creators is Eugenio Pizzimenti, a political science professor who fears that many of those who are undecided will end up abstaining. “The roots of the low turnout go way back and relate to the loss of credibility of Italian politics,” he explains.
Even the multiplication of the election offer with the arrival of new parties does not help, according to the expert, to entice voters. “Many of them are electoral lists tied to individual characters that come and go. There are many options, it’s true, but it’s like when you go to a discount supermarket: you have a lot of products, but none of the quality». In the last general election, held in 2018, there was a 27% abstention rate. If this nomination exceeds 35% in the polls, as some observers fear, “it will be an ugly sign of the quality of our democracy.”
Source: La Verdad
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