Italy - 2013 General Election
Italy is a multi-party parliamentary democracy with a bicameral parliament consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The constitution vests executive authority in the Council of Ministers, headed by a prime minister, whose official title is President of the Council. The President of the Republic, who is the head of state, nominates the prime minister after consulting with the leaders of all political parties in parliament. International observers considered the national parliamentary elections February 24-25 free and fair. The law requires the government maintain civilian control over all security forces. Civilian authorities failed at times to maintain effective control over the security forces, and there were some reports security forces committed human rights abuses.
Principal human rights problems included substandard living conditions in detention centers for undocumented mixed migrant populations, governmental corruption, societal prejudice, and municipal government policies permitting the mistreatment of Roma, which exacerbated their social exclusion and restricted their access to education, health care, employment, and other social services.
The "Italy Common Good" coalition, headed by Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani, won a majority in the Chamber of Deputies but not in the Senate. Lengthy negotiations ensued over the formation of a government.
Bersani's coalition took 345 of the 630 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 112 of the 315 directly elected seats in the Senate. The People's Party for Freedom coalition (PdL)-Northern League (LN), led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, took 125 and 116 seats respectively. The Five Stars Movement (M5s) - a new party led by Beppe Grillo - followed with 109 and 54 seats. Grillo, who himself did not run for a seat in parliament, proposed to slash MPs' salaries and to introduce a minimum income for unemployed Italians. The "With Monti for Italy" coalition led by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti came in the fourth, taking only 47 and 19 seats. He had become Prime Minister in November 2011 amid a financial crisis and implemented austerity plans in an attempt to revive Italy's economy.
On 20 April, a joint parliamentary session re-elected President Giorgio Napolitano after five rounds of inconclusive voting in which other candidates were unable to obtain the requisite majority. On 24 April, he named Enrico Letta (Democratic Party) as Prime Minister, tasking him with forming a new government.
There were 92 women in the 321-seat Senate and 197 women in the 630-seat Chamber of Deputies, including the president of the chamber. Women held six of 21 positions in the Council of Ministers, including the minister of foreign affairs and the minister for integration. The latter, a woman of Congolese origin, was the country’s first black minister.
Two legally defined minority groups had representatives in parliament; the French-speaking Valdostani and the German-speaking Altoatesini/Suedtiroler had a total of three senators and five deputies. Immigrants represented approximately 7.5 percent of the population, and fewer than half of these qualified as ethnic and racial minorities. A member of the Chamber of Deputies was of Moroccan origin.
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