ROME –The election of radical feminist Ellie Schlein as the new secretary of the previously flagging Democratic Party boosted support for the former communist grouping by as much as three percentage points to 19 percent, edging its radical rival, the Five Star Movement (M5S) , which fell to 15.7 percent, according to data collected by the Trieste institute in a survey for TgLa7. 

 Another noticeable shift in votes was the increased amount of voters for the centrist Azione Italia Viva party which rose by one point in the poles. The 'Post-fascist' Fratelli D’Italia of the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, remains Italy's largest party with 30,7 percent of support, according to the poll. 

 The election of Schlein has proven to drive predominantly already-left voters toward the Democratic Party and away from their previous parties. Amongst the parties losing voters was the Five Star Movement which saw a 1 percent drop, settling at 15.7 percent and becoming the third party after Fratelli d’Italia and the Democratic Party. Alos losing voters to Schlein was the Green Left Alliance, which dropped from 4 percent to 3.2 percent this week. Another party, + Europe has also lost around 0.8 percent of voters leaving them at 2.1 percent, this could be due to Schlein’s speech on immigration which resembled the view Riccardo Magi, leader of + Europe has always had on the issue, pundits said. 

 Azione Italia Viva seeing an increase in support of 0.8 percent allowing them to pass the 8 percent threshold. This puts Azione less than 1 percent behind Lega Nord which has been stable at just below 9 percent since September as the fourth biggest political force in Italy. Behind Calenda and Renzi remains Silvio Berlusconi's once powerful Forza Italia at 6 percent. 

 The shift has evidently predominantly caused a shuffle among left-wing voters with the right-wing parties seeing almost no change in their voting poles, which might remain the case as Schlein is widely perceived as radically leftist making it unlikely for her to sway the right wing.  

 jp-sz