Berlusconi 'Massacred' in Regional Elections
By Robin Pomeroy and Gavin Jones
ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffereda crushing defeat at Italian regional elections, officialresults showed on Monday, a huge boost for center-left leaderRomano Prodi's hopes of unseating him next year.
In what one of his defeated regional governors described asa "massacre," Berlusconi's center-right coalition appeared tohave lost 11 of the 13 regions at stake, holding on to just two-- Lombardy and Veneto -- both in its stronghold in the north.
Prodi, who had said he would be satisfied by winning justone new seat, was delighted by his landslide victory.
"Today we have easily won in terms of the number of votesand the number of regions," he told a news conference.
"With this vote Italians are asking us to prepare togovern, to take the country forward."
The death of Pope John Paul on Saturday overshadowed theelection but did not keep voters away. Turnout reached 71.4percent, down just 1.7 percentage points from the last one.
Berlusconi had prepared his supporters for a poor result,saying he expected a mid-term backlash due to Italy's economicwoes. But the outcome was far worse than expected.
Although the final count would not be finished untilTuesday, late preliminary results indicated the center-left hadwrested six regions from government parties, giving it controlof 15 of Italy's 20 regions.
Berlusconi made no comment, but Foreign Minister GianfrancoFini, head of the right-wing National Alliance (AN) party, saidthe defeat was a bad omen for next year's general election.
"We need a lot of humility and great seriousness and themmaybe the result in 2006 can still go the way of thecenter-right," he told talk show on RAI television.
"The government is weaker politically but that does notmean we will resign."
"MASSACRE"
Some opposition figures disagreed. "Berlusconi should drawthe right conclusions and not prolong the agony for anotheryear," said left-wing parliamentarian Antonio di Pietro.
A defeat in regional elections in 2000 prompted the thenprime minister, the center-left's Massimo D'Alema, to step down-- ultimately making way for Berlusconi's rise.
Berlusconi ruled out resigning early even before the pollsopened, saying he would see out his five-year mandate as thelongest-serving premier in post-war Italian history.
The center-right appeared to have lost all three regionswhich parties and pundits saw as the most crucial: Puglia inthe south, Lazio in the center and, probably, Piedmont in thenorth.
The defeat is the latest and most serious in a string ofelectoral setbacks for Berlusconi in local elections which havedented the premier's standing since taking power in 2001.
Francesco Storace, the pugnacious center-right president ofthe Rome region Lazio, said the results around the country hadbeen "a massacre" for the center-right.
Prior to the vote, Storace said defeat in Lazio wouldherald a center-left general election victory. "If we lose inLazio the successor to Berlusconi can only be Prodi."
Storace, from Fini's AN party, said he would not ask for are-vote despite a controversy over a rival's alleged use offalse signatures on electoral documents.
Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of wartime dictatorBenito Mussolini, was initially barred from the election butthen readmitted by an appeals court.
"The verdict should rest with the voters, not the lawyers,"Storace said. The margin of his defeat suggested he would havelost even if Mussolini had not divided the right-wing vote.
A fourteenth region, Basilicata, which is held by thecenter-left, will vote on April 17-18. |
