ROME: In a classroom in central Rome, the topic of discussion was the Italian elections, and on the whiteboard were scrawled English words. Among them was the phrase “least worse”. Amid lengthy discussions of the choice awaiting them at the ballot box, this — more than any other phrase — had emerged as crucial vocabulary. “Why is there not a good leader?” asked Monica, a 39-year-old NGO worker who will cast her vote for the technocrat-turned-politician Mario Monti. “It’s terrible that we are thinking about the least worst option.”

Ahead of elections to choose a new government and parliament, the Italians who rejoiced when Silvio Berlusconi left office 15 months ago are well aware of the importance of the vote for the future of their country. Many have their own laundry lists of areas they say need improving or overhauling, from corruption and clientelism to the media and parliament itself.But rather than speaking optimistically about the election’s potential for renewal, many voters are going to the ballot box uninspired and anxious that, instead of providing a turning point, the election will prove a dead end. “We are worried that there will be this big change (politically) but that in fact nothing will change,” said Eleonora, another of the class’s English students. With just days to go, she, like an estimated five million people — 10 per cent of the electorate — had not yet made up her mind who to vote for. “I don’t know,” she said. “I always voted for the left, but this time I’m really in doubt.”

According to the last official polls released two weeks ago, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) led by Pier Luigi Bersani is most likely — but by no means certain — to emerge with the most votes and lead a new government, probably backed by Monti. But the size of its majority — and therefore how capable it would be of producing a stable, reformist government — would depend both on how successful Berlusconi’s attempted comeback ultimately proves and how many people shun mainstream politics altogether by casting their vote for the Five Star Movement (M5S) of former comedian Beppe Grillo.The M5S has proved a powerful draw for disaffected voters fed up with the same old faces dominating Italian politics. In a front page editorial, the Corriere della Sera said it had become an outlet for rage and frustration, “The traditional parties are incapable of indicating any other course.”

But, though the novelty is compelling, many are unsure about what Grillo stands for — and what his change might look like. “I think he will bring a breath of fresh air — people (elected to parliament) who are not politicians; that can be a good thing, although it isn’t necessarily. But I also think he’s a bit of a demagogue, so that’s what I’m worried about,” said Alberto Milone, a 29-year-old software engineer based in the southern town of Lecce.

Over Pugliese antipasti, Milone said that, despite the apparent array of choice available to voters, there was no obvious candidate for him, “I don’t feel there’s a person who really represents me.” Like many, he will vote for the PD because he sees Bersani as a credible candidate for prime minister, even if he is lacking in charisma and is tainted — in the eyes of many — with the sins of his party’s past, both as a feeble opposition and as a lacklustre government.

But Milone worries that the numbers won’t add up for Bersani, and that he won’t have a strong enough majority to be able to govern properly or to reform. He is far from the only one to think like this.

“The big problem for me is the fractured nature of the parliament. We need a strong majority,” said Giovanni, a civil engineer also in the English class who will vote for the PD. “It is normally possible to govern (in Italy) with a big majority but impossible with a small one — and always more difficult than in Britain, France or Germany. Even a small party wants to be heard.” He is terrified, he added, by the potential return of Berlusconi.

Though Italy has a historically high turn-out rate — it topped 80 per cent at the last election in 2008 — there remain people who simply won’t vote. Maurizio Melito, a 32-year-old from Lecce, is the definition of an engaged citizen: he is a youth worker, a cultural centre co-ordinator, a teacher, and he sleeps 10 nights a month in a rehabilitation centre for the drug and alcohol addicted. He speaks eloquently about the impact of policies on his native Puglia and votes in local elections. But he regards national politicians as “the educated mafia” and says they are the problem, rather than the solution to, Italy’s woes. “I will not vote,” he said. “It’s not the vote that’s going to change the situation — for me this is a shame. I would really like to be able to vote.”

By arrangement with the Guardian