Italian election sequel could favour right wing

MILAN: A speedy Italian election sequel could favour the country's right wing. Failure to form a coalition government after an inconclusive general election in March has raised the chances of a snap poll, possibly as soon as July. That would benefit the rightist League and its allies, which won recent local elections. But it also prolongs the country's political uncertainty.

President Sergio Mattarella - the arbiter of Italy's government-forming process - on May 7 called for parties to put aside their differences and support a "neutral government" tasked with drawing up a budget law for 2019.

The country needs an executive to agree spending cuts that would prevent an automatic hike in Italy's sales tax to 24.2 percent in January. But the two strongest parties - the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and anti-immigration League - have made it clear they will not back a non-partisan administration.

This leaves Italy with little choice but to hold fresh elections, at an estimated cost of more than 300 million euros.

This is more than just a waste of financial resources. Voters might not appreciate politicians' unwillingness to show unity for the greater good of the nation.

Prolonged uncertainty will also spook investors, which had hoped a grand coalition or technocrat-led government would build on recently enacted reforms. Italy's blue-chip equity index dipped 2 percent on Tuesday morning while government bond yields rose.

If elections are held soon, the result might be less inconclusive than in March. An SWG poll published on May 7 showed the centre-right bloc that includes the League, led by Matteo Salvini, and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia on 38 percent. That is very close to the threshold of 39 to 40 percent that pollsters reckon would give any coalition a majority in both chambers of Italy's parliament.

Neither 5-Star, with 32 percent, nor the centre-left Democratic party at 19 percent, would be able to govern alone.

Ironically, a government that included Berlusconi would be more moderate than a radical alliance between the League and 5-Star. Even so, with the euro-sceptic Salvini at the helm, Italy's relationship with the European Union would face heightened tensions.