Posted on 04/14/2008 1:24:05 PM PDT by knighthawk
Silvio Berlusconi has won a crushing victory in the Italian general election to become prime minister for the third time.
The 71-year-old media magnate defeated Walter Veltroni, the 52-year-old leader of the Democratic Party, by a considerable margin and has a large enough majority to rule Italy for a full five-year term.
Mr Veltroni, who was a popular mayor of Rome before entering national politics, conceded defeat five hours after the polls closed, saying that the result was clear.
"I have telephoned Mr Berlusconi to wish him well in the job," he said, adding that he was comforted that Italy had not lost faith in politics, despite being called to its 62nd election in 63 years.
"The country has strongly emphasised its belief in democracy and its institutions. More than 80 per cent of citizens voted."
He also offered his help to Mr Berlusconi in "carrying out reforms" but admitted that Italy's Left wing is destined for a long spell in opposition.
"We cannot know how long it will be," he said.
Projections showed that Mr Berlusconi's coalition won 163 seats in the Senate, compared to 141 seats for Mr Veltroni.
In Italy's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, the count was 332 seats to 215.
The perma-tanned billionaire said he was "deeply satisfied" with the result.
The Senate was a key battleground for Mr Berlusconi.
Unlike in the UK, both houses of Italy's parliament have an equal amount of executive power.
However, seats in the Senate are distributed on a regional basis. Any party that wins the majority in a region automatically gets 55 per cent of its seats.
Since each party holds a roughly similar number of regions, many commentators doubted whether Mr Berlusconi would be able to win a solid majority.
However, Mr Veltroni warned that Mr Berlusconi's government could be held to ransom by the Northern League, the secessionist party headed by Umberto Bossi, his coalition partner.
"The League is strong. We are a great force!" said Mr Bossi after winning between seven and eight per cent of the vote.
Mr Bossi, who is one of Italy's most controversial and unpredictable politicians, called on Mr Berlusconi to give him a large share of cabinet posts and to carry out the devolution of Italy "immediately".
His party is bent on splitting the industrial north of the country away from the poor regions of the south.
Mr Bossi has wrecked Mr Berlusconi's government before, when he broke off their alliance in 1994.
Although Mr Veltroni lost the election, he was praised for bringing about a revolution in Italian politics.
In the past, the Italian parliament was filled with dozens of squabbling parties.
Romano Prodi's government, for example, was made up of 11 separate parties, ranging from Catholics to communists.
Unsurprisingly, it was unable to find a consensus on any political issue and collapsed under the weight of its contradictions.
But in this election, Mr Veltroni and Mr Berlusconi captured more than 70 per cent of the vote between them, heralding the beginning of a two party system.
Mr Veltroni brought about that change with a New Labour-style purge of Italy's radical parties.
"We have done the right thing for the country," he said.
An alliance of communists and environmentalists, the Arcobaleno party, apparently failed to capture a single seat in either house.
"This is a debacle!" said Nino Frosini, the leader of the Communist Party in Tuscany.
Italy's struggling businesses immediately called on Mr Berlusconi to help them.
"We need to find our confidence again," said Emma Marcegaglia, the head of Confindustria, the pro-business lobby group.
She called for tax reforms and investment in education and "human capital".
The people have spoken.
You’d think from reading the papers that “the world” hates the US. I always distrust what I read in the foreign press, just like I do about the leftist MSM here in the states.
Yep. He said that a vote for the conservative candidate was a vote for the left. Sounds like a lot of McCain FReepers.
Plastic surgery.
You know something is deeply wrong when those two words; "McCain" and "lucky" are even mentioned in the same paragraph together.
I wish that was a joke ...
Very good news Bah...
Italians always did have more common sense than much of Europe especially more than France, Germany, and Spain.
Don't forget, this is the same Silvio Berlusconi who after 9/11 said the west should conquer the middle east because our culture is better than theirs. I don't think this guy has ever heard of political correctness.
Italy ping!
Too bad the italian participation in that endeavor did not match his rhetoric.
Good deal.
First Sarkozy then Berlusconi. Could it be that Europe is be growing a pair?
Woo hoo! Thanks Italy!
I like this guy.
It’s the olive oil, the wine, and the women.
Not necessarily in that order...
He is wonderfully un-PC but he did not (so far as I ever saw) call for invading lots of countries...... this is what he said two weeks after 9/11, on 9/25/01:
“We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and - in contrast with Islamic countries - respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its value understanding of diversity and tolerance.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1565664.stm
[Just that was enough to bring denunciations from the President of the EU and the usual ranting idiots all over the left claiming that he was calling for a war of civilizations, etc.]
ping
Is it just me or is the news downplaying this a little? I suspect if Prodi had been reelected there would have been screaming headlines.
bttt
Now if only they would start reproducing.
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