STORY: The early parliamentary elections have begun in Italy. Almost 47 million Italians are called upon to decide which course the third largest economy in the EU will take in the future. A right-wing alliance under the top candidate Giorgia Meloni is considered the favourite. The head of the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party has joined forces with ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s Lega. Meloni claims the post of prime minister for herself should her “brothers of Italy” emerge as the strongest single party in the elections. The center-left party (PD) around top candidate Enrico Letta and the 5-star movement of former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte are given outsider chances, even if pollsters recently saw them on the upswing. In a street survey in Rome on election day, citizens mainly expressed the expectation that something would change. O-ton Salvatore: “I hope for good things for Italy, because we live in difficult times and when people vote wisely, it doesn’t matter whether the right or the left wins, what is important is that concrete measures are taken for the country be taken.” O-ton Paolo: “I believe rather than hope that the right will win, but I don’t know how it will end. As far as I know, the left has no serious election program and the parties are on their own, while the right has at least a coalition. Although I think it would be better if Berlusconi retired, frankly. The election became necessary because the old government – a broad coalition under former ECB President Mario Draghi – collapsed in July after internal quarrels.