ROME : Left, Right Test
Italian voters go to the polls Sunday to elect 15 regional, 76 provincial and 5,136 municipal governments. The balloting is billed as a bruising right-left showdown and a trial heat for national elections in the fall.
On the right, the vote will mark a major test for billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister whose government fell in December, and Gianfranco Fini, who has led the hard-liners away from their neo-fascist roots.
On the other political wing, the Party of the Democratic Left, the renamed onetime Italian Communist Party, will be testing its strength on a national basis for the first time in alliance with Socialists, Greens and small leftist groupings. About 43 million Italians are eligible to vote in 15 mainland regions. The runoff will be held May 5.
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