A winter election is not to Italian tastes. But on Feb. 24-25, up to 50 million voters will go to the polls to elect a new parliament, delivering Italy's 62nd government in the last 65 years.
Since November 2011, Italy has been led not by a politician, but by an academic economist and a former European Union commissioner, Mario Monti. His emergency technocratic government, supported by the left and right, was a masterstroke of outgoing President Giorgio Napolitano.
Napolitano's move was crucial, filling Italy's need to replace the inefficient and scandal-ridden Silvio Berlusconi, in whom fellow leaders and global markets had lost all confidence, with an internationally respected figure.