In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi has narrowly won his third term as Italian Prime Minister, so what does this mean for LGBT Italians?

Germany, Austria, Greece  and Italy are now the only Western European states without some form of registered partnership or civil union available for their lesbian and gay citizens. In Germany’s case, I suspect they’ll only have to wait until the end of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tenure, and the end of the current CDU/SDP ‘grand coalition’ before the SDP/Green coalition regains office and obliges.

In the case of Italy, matters are more complicated. Like most of the rest of Western Europe apart from Great Britain, proportional representation is the electoral system du jour in that country. Unfortunately, unlike Germany (and New Zealand’s) MMP electoral system, Italy (and Israel) lack a lower electoral threshold that disqualifies any parties that don’t secure a bolthole constituency seat from parliamentary representation, set at five percent for both countries. Consequently, government stability and coalition forming is a highly fraught process in Italy, to the detriment of law making.

Somehow, though, it does happen. To give the ousted Socialist Prime Minister Prodi credit, the prior centre-left administration did do its best to try to secure the passage of civil union legislation in Italy, only to be let down by its coalition partners. Further complications ensue if one recalls that the largest centre-party, the Christian Democrats, collapsed in a welter of corruption scandals, and that despite this, the Vatican’s presence lends it gravity when it wants to act as a bully pulpit- as, unfortunately, is the case in the context of lesbian/gay relationship recognition and transgender rights.

However, all is not lost. Berlusconi’s tenure will last only as long as his governing coalition does, which may result in the return of the Socialists, especially as the media magnate’s victory this time was comparatively narrow. Same-sex Italian couples may yet be able to tie the knot sometime in the intermediate future, depending on the hyperchoice and vagarities of Italian parliamentary politics.