ROME: Italians voted in local polls yesterday that will test political parties three months from a general election that left no clear winner and a month after the start of a fragile coalition cabinet.
The focus is on the Italian capital Rome where incumbent right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno is running two points behind his leftist challenger Ignazio Marino, according to recent opinion polls.
The elections are also a bellwether of support for the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which won a quarter of the vote in national elections but has appeared to lose ground since then.
Turnout was much lower than in local elections five years ago, with around 37 percent turning out by 1700 GMT compared to 45 percent before. Polling stations will re-open on Monday for a second day of voting and close at 1300 GMT, with preliminary results expected later in the day.
Stabbing could be act of terror: France
PARIS: The stabbing of a French soldier near Paris by a man who is still on the run bore the hallmarks of Islamist terrorism, the interior minister said yesterday, and police said it may have been inspired by the murder of a British serviceman in London.
Anti-terrorism investigators are hunting for a bearded man aged about 30, possibly of North African origin, who fled into a crowded train station after attacking the 23-year-old soldier from behind with a knife or a box-cutter on Saturday.
The French soldier survived the mid-afternoon attack, which was carried out three days after a British soldier was hacked to death on a busy London street by two men shouting Islamist slogans.
Merkel not scaring off conservatives
BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel has not alienated conservative German voters by pushing her Christian Democrats into the centre but has instead put the party on course to win for a third straight term in September, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.
In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine yesterday, the powerful leader of the CDU’s conservative wing made it clear to fellow right wingers they should stop sniping at Merkel if they want to help keep the party in power for four more years.
Schaeuble also ruled out for the first time a “grand coalition” with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), a right-centre alliance that many analysts expect to be the outcome in September. He also ruled out a coalition with the Greens.
Merkel, seeking a third term, has been under fire from the right wing of her CDU for pushing the party away from its conservative roots.
Agencies
