Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has suffered a serious blow in local elections that punctured his image of political invincibility and could usher in a period of instability. Aides said he was "surprised and saddened" by the results. Both Berlusconi's PDL party and its Northern League allies did badly in the first round of voting on Sunday and Monday in elections in 1,310 towns and 11 provinces. The polls were seen as a key test for the premier midway through his third term.
Berlusconi's centre-right bloc suffered the biggest shock in their stronghold of Milan, trailing a centre-left candidate who forced them into a run-off for the first time in 14 years. Berlusconi, embroiled in a sex scandal and facing three corruption trials, received 47 percent less preference votes than he did at the last election in Milan five years ago.
In contrast to the period before the vote, when he bombarded the air waves with comments in a round of frenetic campaigning, Berlusconi remained uncharacteristically silent on Tuesday, 24 hours after polls closed in the two-day first round. The media magnate had turned the elections into a vote on him and his national policies, but the strategy spectacularly backfired.
Analysts said that even though the centre right could fight back in run-offs in two weeks, the vote had already undermined Berlusconi's reputation as Italy's dominant political force for the first time since he stormed to power in 1994. They widely predicted political instability because the losses damaged an alliance with the anti-immigrant, pro-devolution League, on which his government depends.
Voters sick of nasty political mudslinging led by Berlusconi also rewarded candidates from outside the big parties. "The Milan vote shakes the legend of the Black Knight (Berlusconi), capable of winning any battle, even the most desperate, with his own strength," said Ugo Magri in La Stampa newspaper.
Massimo Franco, a respected commentator in Corriere della Sera, said the vote had begun "the reassessment of a leader who after presenting himself and being considered by allies as a god, now risks becoming a scapegoat". Milan's centre-right mayor Letizia Moratti, Berlusconi's candidate, won 41.6 percent of the vote against 48 percent for her rival Giuliano Pisapia, giving the left a chance to win Italy's financial capital for the first time in nearly 20 years. Milan is Berlusconi's home town, where he built his business fortune and launched his political career, making the setback there all the more significant.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.