For a Few Votes More: The Italian General Elections of April 2006

Despite polls predicting a bigger victory, the Italian general elections of 2006 saw an extremely narrow victory by the centre-left coalition Unione, led by Romano Prodi. Electoral predictions had been based on the decreased popularity of the incumbent Berlusconi government over the previous five years. But Berlusconi showed great determination during the last months before the elections. He was able to pass a new electoral law and to conduct a very aggressive, mobilizing campaign, which allowed him to almost completely recover the gap. The result was also determined by the virtual disappearance of third forces, compared with 2001.