Bad news from Italy

The news is filtering through and it does not look good. Not only is Berlusconi heading for victory the left is taking a real hammering.

Sinistra Arcobaleno, the hard left coalition led by Fausto Bertinotti, which includes the Greens and various reconstructed and unreconstructed communists has done very badly indeed, certainly under what the PRC (one of the four Sinistra Arcobaleno partners) on its own acheived last time, see note below. As La Repubblica stated it is indeed "Uno scenario tragico per la Sinistra Arcobaleno."

The preliminary projections look like this;

Berlusconi's rightwing coalition .......... 47.2%
Veltroni's centre left coalition .......... 38.1%
The centre "Union" ......................... 5.7%
Sinistra Arcobaleno ....................... .3.2%
La Destra, the far right coalition ........ .2.1%

In case you weren't depressed enough it looks as if the Northern League have increased their influence and size within Berlusconi's block.

As yet we can't see how many seats this will mean, but it sounds like the full results will be out soon. More as it comes in...

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Notes: Previous election results:

............ 2001......2004 ....2006
PRC..........5%........6%.......5.8%.. (41 deputy seats)
Greens.......2.2%......2.5%.....2%.... (15 deputy seats)

Elsewhere:

Discussion on the left breakaway grouping Sinistra Critica can be found from Liam (in favour) and Andy (opposed). Scottish Green blogger Two Doctors places the blame for poor performance at the polls for the Greens with their choice of electoral partners.