Support for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi remains high, a poll showed Friday, at the end of a week in which he prevailed in a showdown with trade unions and opposition parties over controversial labour reforms.
The government won a Senate confidence vote early Thursday on a package including measures to make it easier to fire people and expand unemployment benefits. The vote came at the end of a bitter, and sometimes violent, parliamentary fight.
The Ixe polling institute said Renzi’s trust rating was 50 per cent, up one percentage point from last week, while support for his Democratic Party (PD) was at 39.9 per cent, compared to a previous reading of 40.2 per cent.
Overall, Renzi’s centre-left coalition was credited with 43.4 per cent of the votes, against 31.3 per cent for the centre-right and 21.3 per cent for the anti-establishment Five Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo.
Another poll by Istituto Piepoli, published Wednesday by ANSA news agency and La Stampa newspaper, confirmed the enduring popularity of the ruling party, as it estimated that support for the PD was at 41 per cent, up 0.5 from the previous week.
Italy’s economy is mired in the worst slump since World War II, and Renzi is under pressure from European Union partners to deliver bold reforms.
His so-called Job Act has won praise from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was in Milan on Wednesday.
GNA
