The challengers are the head of Italian executive, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and the head of European commission, Romano Prodi. One could say that two years are too many for an electoral campaign, but in these two years there are four important electoral moments in Italy.
In June 2004, there will be the election for European parliament and for town councils in many important cities. If centre-right loses the election, the centre-left will say that the opinions of the majority in the state has changed. Otherwise, Berlusconi will become even stronger than before.
In any case, elections for regional councils in all Italian regions will be held after one year. These elections are very important for three reasons: every region has a big administration power in its area, these election are the first after 2001 constitutional reform, and the regional elections are more important than any opinion poll for 2006 election. If a coalition loses this election, it will be very difficult for the same coalition to win the 2006 election.
In this long race, Berlusconi is always leader of centre-right coalition; however, in centre-left coalition there is not a real leader. Prodi is, again, busy with his charge as head of EU commission and, for this reason, a substitute leader, Francesco Rutelli, ex Rome major, is representing the coalition.
Each coalition has its own major problem, it seems. The centre-right seems to be struggling the most with the "Lega problem. The Leader of Lega Nord (a secessionist party), Umberto Bossi, is in the hospital for a cardiac crisis and none in the party is able to take the position of leader. For this reason, if Bossi will not be able to resume his position as leader of Lega Nord, we cant say what will be the future of this party or how it will affect the centre-right coalition.
In the centre-left coalition, the problem involves Di Pietro and Bertinotti. Di Pietro is an ex-judge and he is the party's symbol of fighting corruption. He is the leader of a small party (the opinion polls say that Di Pietro has 3.9 % of votes) and hes determined to win the coalition. However, in the coalition, the socialists (last opinion polls say that the power of socialists is 0.9 %) dont want Di Pietro because he was the cause of the collapse of all socialistic class in 1992. Bertinotti is the leader of the communist party, and there are many conflicts between the communist party and the centre-left coalition. We must remember that Bertinotti was the cause of the collapse of Romano Prodi, once the leader of Italian executive. For this reason, it is difficult believe that Prodi will want be helped by the same men who have been cause of his collapse.
The race begins now, and many exciting things are sure to happen.
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