ROME (AP) – The Latest on Italy’s national election on Sunday (all times local):
6:20 p.m.
As Italian political leaders wound up their election campaigning, Premier Paolo Gentiloni had some good news to tweet.
FILE – In this Oct. 19, 2017 file photo, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni arrives for a meeting of European Socialists prior to an EU summit in Brussels. Italy’s March 4 election might have no clear winner. A Roman from a noble family, Gentiloni, 63, cut his political teeth at a classics high school considered the choice of Rome’s bourgeois class, assuming the role of as a leader of left-wing students during Italy’s hot years of far-right and far-left youth dissent. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, FILE)
Gentiloni isn’t his Democratic Party’s official candidate for premier in Sunday’s national election, but he’s considered popular and could be a compromise choice if a grand coalition is needed to break post-vote gridlock.
Gentiloni tweeted Friday that a deal was struck to save 500 jobs with Embraco and Whirlpool at a factory near Turin at least through 2018.
Ex-Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democrats have plunged in popularity in opinion polls. But the same polls tab Gentiloni as Italy’s most admired leader. Renzi, the Democrats’s official candidate for premier, resigned in 2016 after losing a referendum on his reforms.
Analysts say Sunday’s election will likely yield a hung parliament, making a coalition government necessary.
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9 a.m.
Italy’s election campaign reads much like a police blotter, chronicling a country whose politics lately have been increasingly nasty, divisive and even violent.
A young man knifed while affixing posters for a far-left party. A politician for a pro-fascism party beaten up on the street. A candidate for premier spat upon and shoved while stumping for her far-right party. Protests and counter-protests, in the streets from north to south.
The national vote this Sunday to determine who’ll govern Italy appears unlikely to bring much relief. Prospects are high for weeks, even months, of more political tensions after the vote, with backroom party maneuvering quite possibly producing a crisis-prone, short-lived government with limited chances of making headway on Italy’s economic and social issues.
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Frances D’Emilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio
Palm trees are dusted in snow after a snowfall in front of Milan’s Gothic Cathedral, Italy, Friday, March 2, 2018. Persistent snow and freezing conditions from a Siberian cold snap are causing delays in many parts of mainland Europe, with roads and train services hit particularly hard. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A demonstrator shouts slogans during an anti-racist and anti-fascist movements protest against the Italian far-right movement ‘CasaPound’, in Rome, Thursday, March 1, 2018. Italy’s soon-to-end election campaign reads much like a police blotter, chronicling a country whose politics lately have been increasingly nasty, divisive and even violent. (Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP)
The League party’s candidate premier, Matteo Salvini, shakes hands with sympathizers during an electoral meeting in view of March 4 Italy’s general elections, in Rome, Thursday, March 1, 2018. Two of Salvini’s campaign vows are undoing unpopular pension reforms that raised the retirement age in the rapidly aging country and enacting a flat, 15-percent tax, a drastic drop from income tax rates that can surpass 40-percent rate. (Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP)
The League party’s candidate premier, Matteo Salvini, talks during an electoral meeting in view of March 4 Italy’s general elections, in Rome, Thursday, March 1, 2018. Two of Salvini’s campaign vows are undoing unpopular pension reforms that raised the retirement age in the rapidly aging country and enacting a flat, 15-percent tax, a drastic drop from income tax rates that can surpass 40-percent rate. (Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP)
Secretary of ‘Partito Democratico’ (Democratic Party) and former premier Matteo Renzi, attends the recording of Rai tv program “Porta a porta” in Rome, Friday, March 2, 2018. General elections in Italy will be held Sunday. (Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP)
Five-Star Movement (M5S) candidate premier, Luigi Di Maio, attends Rai Uno TV program ‘Porta a Porta’, Friday, March 2, 2018. General elections in Italy will be held Sunday. (Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP)
Secretary of ‘Partito Democratico’ (Democratic Party) and former premier Matteo Renzi, laughs during the recording of Rai tv program “Porta a porta” in Rome, Friday, March 2, 2018. General elections in Italy will be held Sunday. (Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP)
European Parliament President Antonio Tajani exits from the entrance of a building hosting the offices of the European Parlament, in Rome, Friday, March 2, 2018. Forza Italia’s Silvio Berlusconi has been unofficially promoting Tajani as the “right” person to be premier following the upcoming March 4 general elections. (Fabio Frustaci/ANSA via AP)
European Parliament President Antonio Tajani stands in the entrance of a building hosting the offices of the European Parlament, in Rome, Friday, March 2, 2018. Forza Italia’s Silvio Berlusconi has been unofficially promoting Tajani as the “right” person to be premier following the upcoming March 4 general elections. (Fabio Frustaci/ANSA via AP)
Leader of the Democratic Party and former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi plays a videogame at the end of an electoral forum on the upcoming March 4 general elections, at Italy’s news agency ANSA, in Rome, Friday, March 2, 2018. Recent opinion polls are indicating that the Democrats have steadily lost support, with some previous voters opting for the populist-5-Stars, or even Berlusconi’s center-right party. (Ettore Ferrari/ANSA via AP)
Torn electoral posters for the March 4 general election are seen on billboards along a street in Rome, Friday, March 2, 2018. Italy’s soon-to-end election campaign reads much like a police blotter, chronicling a country whose politics lately have been increasingly nasty, divisive and even violent. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A woman walks past billboards bearing electoral posters of the Italian Communist party, right, and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy), in view of the upcoming March 4 general elections, in Rome, Friday, March 2, 2018. How the election plays out might well depend on the biggest bloc in the opinion polls: those saying they’re undecided who will get their vote or if they’ll even vote at all, along with those who say they’ll boycott the vote. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
The League party’s candidate premier, Matteo Salvini, shakes hands with sympathizers during an electoral meeting in view of March 4 Italy’s general elections, in Rome, Thursday, March 1, 2018. Two of Salvini’s campaign vows are undoing unpopular pension reforms that raised the retirement age in the rapidly aging country and enacting a flat, 15-percent tax, a drastic drop from income tax rates that can surpass 40-percent rate. (Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP)
FILE – In this Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018 file photo, former Italian Premier and Forza Italia (Go Italy) party leader Silvio Berlusconi smiles during the recording of the Italian state television RAI, Porta a Porta (Door To Door) TV talk show in Rome. Berlusconi is not running for anything but hoping to be the kingmaker in the March 4 general elections. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE – In this Feb. 13, 2018 file photo, former Italian Premier Matteo Renzi speaks during a press conference at the Foreign Press Club ahead of the March 4 general elections, in Rome. Like his fellow Florentine, Niccolo’ Macchiavelli, Renzi relishes the power of political calculation. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, files)
FILE – In this Jan. 31, 2018 file photo, Italian 5-Star Movement’s Prime Ministerial candidate Luigi Di Maio smiles during a press conference ahead of the upcoming Italian general election at a hotel in London, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018. Di Maio is determined to become the populist 5-Star Movement’s first premier. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, files)
FILE – In this Feb. 22, 2018 file photo, League party leader Matteo Salvini speaks during a press conference at the Foreign Press Club in Rome ahead of the March 4 general elections. Salvini is in a battle to dominate the center-right, and wants to upstage Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party to stake claim to the premiership, which would move the three-party campaign coalition away from the center. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, files)
A militants holds a poster for The League party’s candidate premier, Matteo Salvini, during an electoral meeting in view of March 4 Italy’s general elections, in Rome, Thursday, March 1, 2018. (Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP)
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