After two months of a campaign dominated by issues related to immigration, security and economic recovery - which is slowly being felt in the daily lives of Italians - on Saturday "electoral silence" prevailed in the country: any comment in the media is prohibited until to close the polls at 23.00 on Sunday night, for these parliamentary elections that may lead to the rise of populist and far-right parties and a parliament without a majority for any party.
Silvio Berlusconi, whose center-right coalition leads the polls but has not secured a majority, has chosen to make his last appearance in Naples. This is because in southern Italy the result is more ambiguous than ever.
In interviews on Friday night, the multimillionaire businessman promised to create 500.000 jobs in the Italian South, with the support of Antonio Tagiani, President of the European Parliament. He has also chosen Tagiani as prime minister of his government - if elected - since he has been convicted of tax evasion and has no right to hold public office until 2019.
"Tagiani has already devised a program for the infrastructure of the South, which can be implemented using funds from the European Structural Funds. This is what our immediate measures for the reduction of taxes and insurance contributions of companies are intended ", he explained.
In Milan, Matteo Salvini of the Northern League, Berlusconi's young ally in this election, assured his supporters that "from Monday the League will rule the country". He also reiterated his well-known stances against Brussels and the immigrants who "set fire" to the election campaign in recent weeks.
In front of his supporters in Florence, the leader of the center-left, Matteo Renzi, mocked Berlusconi's old, "recycled" promises and called on the Italians to cast a "useful vote" against the far right, which in tomorrow's elections could lead to 20 %. "I say this to the voters of the radical left but also to the moderates: only a vote in favor of the PD guarantees that we will not leave the country in the hands of Matteo Salvini", he warned, also referring to the threat of post-election cooperation between the League and the 5 Star Movement (M5S).
The Movement, for its part, ended the election campaign on Friday night with a large rally in Rome. "Tonight is the end of the opposition period and the beginning of the government" for M5S, Luigi Di Maio, the Movement's prime ministerial candidate, assured thousands of supporters.
Posting polls is prohibited in Italy in the last two weeks before the vote. The latest available polls put the right / far right in first place with 37% (of which 17% for Berlusconi's Forza Italia and 13% for the League). It was followed by the M5S with 28%, the center-left coalition with 27% (23% for Renzi's Democratic Party) and the left-wing Free and Equal movement with 6%. The number of undecided, however, was still very high.