Sicily Shifts to the Left
Had long been supporters of center-right parties.
Sicily elected a governor from Italy's center-left parties for the first time in more than a decade on Monday, in a ballot that underscored rising voter disaffection with the country's political establishment and the growing popularity of a protest party led by a former comedian.
Sicily's political map, which is closely watched as a bellwether of the coming national elections in the spring, was redrawn by Monday's election results. Backing crumbled for center-right parties that once considered Sicily a bastion of support.
The vote came as rating firm Fitch on Monday downgraded Sicily one notch closer to junk territory, citing expectations of a prolonged period of budgetary deficits in the Italian region. Sicily is one of Italy's poorest regions, with an unemployment rate of nearly 20%, twice the national average.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?