On Sunday October 11, 2005, thousands people demonstrated in the piazza del Popolo in Rome against attempts by the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to change election rules as well as against the financial policies of the Berlusconi government.

Berlusconi and his allies have proposed a change in the voting rules before next year’s general elections that are scheduled for April or May 2006. Currently, Italy has a mixed electoral system with 75% of the seats being assigned by uninominal voting system and the remaining 25% by a proportional system. If successful, the change will repeal a 1994 amendment that brought about the current voting laws and create a sophisticated proportional system with a 4% threshold for a party to reserve any seats. The proposed changes are expected to favor the center right since the center left coalition is made up of a number of small parties, some of which have failed to reach 4% of the total vote in recent elections. It is likely that today will be descive in deciding whether Berlusconi is sucescful in pushing the reforms through parliament

Opposition to Berlusconi’s economic policies center around his budget plan for 2006 that cuts resources to regions and cities as well as provides tax cuts for big business. It is also being fueled by a general fall in standard of living for Italian families over the last several years.

The demonstration, estimated at 100,000 people, was a sea of party flags and balloons, mostly representing the center left of Italian politics. It was supported by the center left coalition l’Unione, the Union, the former olive tree coalition, L’Unione is composed primarily of Socialisti Democratici Italiani (SDI), Italian Democratic Socialists; La Margherita – Democrazia è libertà, a centrists party; Democratici di Sinistra (DS), the former Communists Party; Rifondazione Comunista, a split from DS, the Greens and another dozen small parties that received from 0.5% to 2.0% in the last elections. However, the Disobbedienti, the political wing of the left squatter community centers in Italy, did not participate in the demonstration,

Romano Prodi, a former European Union commission president, took the stage among loud applause and chats of “Prodi, Prodi, Prodi…”. In his diplomatic remarks, Prodi declared that reintroducing proportional representation would be “gigantic steps backwards” for Italy and described Berlusconi as suffering from “irresponsibility” and “incompetence”. He went on to condemn Berlusconi’s international policies and “military adventures” although he made not specific mention of Iraq or the 3,000 troops stationed there. Prodi is expected to be the candidate for l’Union in this springs general election against Berlusconi, which will be decided in a primary election on October 16, 2005. He was the only one of the seven candidates running to address the crowd from the stage.

Sundays rally is the first event expected to rock Italian politics and the Berlusconi government in October. French President Jacques Chirac faced a “Black Tuesday”, when more than a million people demonstrated in 150 cities across France on October 4th against unemployment, decreases in the standard of living and to demand rights for workers in the public and private sector in France. Berlusconi, on the other hand, may face a “Black October”. On October 17th, a national general strike has been called in the public health sector and the official unions are also calling for a 4-hour general strike, both in opposition to the government budget.

Katrina Yeaw is a member of Students Against War, a chapter of the Campus Antiwar Network, at San Francisco State University. She is currently studying in Florence and can be reached at Katrina.yeaw@gmail.comp>

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