Monday, March 2, 2020

Italy's Communist Party increases its power in Rome by-elections

Communist Party leader Marco Rizzo gained the 4th place in the supplementary elections that took place on Sunday in Rome’s Lazio 1 constituency. 

Rizzo received 2.62% of the votes, which is seven times higher than the percentage in the 2018 elections (0.37%), thus marking a successful electoral performance for the Communist Party (Partito Comunista), given the existing correlation of forces.

A message, written in Italian, at the Communist Party's official website reads: 
"Il PARTITO COMUNISTA, col segretario Marco Rizzo candidato, passa dallo 0.37%, ottenuto alle elezioni politiche del 2018 al 2.62% di oggi, nello stesso difficilissimo collegio di ROMA Centro (7 volte di più in termini percentuali e con quasi il raddoppio dei voti in termini assoluti, nonostante la percentuale dei votanti fosse del 73.77% nel 2018 e solo del 17.66% oggi) altre forze -come Pap- hanno sì confermato il dato percentuale ma, in termini di  voti assoluti, hanno ottenuto meno di un terzo dei voti presi rispetto al 2018."
The winner of the by-elections in Rome was Democratic Party’s (PD) candidate and Economy Minister Paolo Gualtieri, who received 62.24%. The candidates of the nationalist “Brothers of Italy” (Fdl) and Five Star Movement (M5S) acquired the second and third position respectively. 

The by-elections were held in order to elect a deputy for the seat left vacant by Paolo Gentiloni who was selected as the new EU Commissioner for Economy. The election had a low turnout of just 17.7%.