Veltroni looks to Italy's 'red city' for support

The "red city" of Bologna has mellowed since its days as a Communist Party stronghold during the Cold war - just like the man it is likely to back in Italy's parliamentary election.

Walter Veltroni, a former communist now campaigning on a centre-left ticket, is counting on the support of cities such as Bologna if he is to prevent conservative Silvio Berlusconi returning to power in the election on Sunday and Monday.

Even the city hall is red, true to the political colours of a region that turned to the Communist Party after leading resistance against Nazi occupation in World War II.

"Historically, Bologna has always voted for the left," said Andrea De Maria, the head of Veltroni's Democratic Party (PD) in this university city in Italy's industrial north.

Opinion polls put Mr Berlusconi 5-9 points ahead of Veltroni nationwide. But the centre left won 40-45 per cent of votes in Bologna in the last election in 2006, won by former Bologna University professor Romano Prodi.

There are few election posters up in central Bologna in a campaign that has failed to mobilise public opinion, with voters cynical about politicians in general after seeing 61 governments come and go since World War II.

But most are for Mr Veltroni, the 52-year-old former Rome mayor who promotes himself as an agent of change as opposed to Berlusconi, who has already been prime minister twice.

"There is no doubt Mr Veltroni is the favourite (here)," said newspaper vendor Matteo Costantini. Mr Veltroni, who likens himself to US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, lacks 71-year-old Berlusconi's slick charm, but polls suggest some Italians warm to his intellectual image.

Prof. Prodi contested the 2006 election with what was known as the Olive Tree alliance but quit as prime minister in January after 20 months in office, following defections from his centre-left coalition.

The communists were Prof. Prodi's allies in 2006, but Mr Veltroni's PD split with the hard left last year and is contesting this election with more moderate allies.

"(The split) was appreciated," Bologna University History Professor Paolo Pombeni said.

Medical student Lorenzo Tomasi said: "Having the PD as it is makes it more qualified. With Prof. Prodi, there was disagreement on everything. One would say 'A', the other would reply 'Z'."

But some former communists talk of betrayal by the PD and will vote for the Rainbow Left, a force which brings together communists and greens and is fielding veteran communist Fausto Bertinotti for prime minister.