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ROME, Dec. 30-- Italy's political parties were on the campaign trail Saturday ahead of the next general election, to be held on March 4, 2018. The countdown officially began on Dec. 28 when President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament, paving the way for what some international media -- including Bloomberg News, the Financial Times and the New York Times -- are calling the next major testing ground for the (European Union) EU after Brexit. The vote will be held under Italy's brand-new electoral law, whose mix of a one-third majority first-past-the-post system with a two-thirds proportional system favors coalitions over single parties. This may spell trouble for the populist, euro-skeptic Five-Star Movement, which is currently Italy's leading force and which has long prided itself on its refusal to enter into alliances with other parties, which it says are all corrupt. On Saturday, Five Star candidate Luigi di Maio announced the movement's new rules for the campaign, which include a fine of 100,000 euros (about 120,000 U.S. dollars) for any Five Star MPs who decide to abandon ship to join a different party after they get elected. "We must protect ourselves from would-be profiteers," Di Maio told Sky TG24 private broadcaster in televised comments. Also in the running is a coalition made up of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's liberal, conservative Forza Italia party plus the rightwing anti-immigrant Northern League and the far-right Brothers of Italy party. | 
