Victorious Berlusconi warns of 'difficult months ahead'

Published on Monday 14 April 2008 22:50

CONSERVATIVE billionaire Silvio Berlusconi warned of "difficult months ahead" last night as he won a third term as Italy's prime minister.

The 71-year-old media magnate faces deep economic and social problems, with the country close to recession, consumer buying power falling and unemployment rising.

Speaking after his rival Walter Veltroni admitted defeat, Mr Berlusconi said he was willing to work with the opposition to pass vital economic reforms.

Mr Berlusconi scored strong victories in both houses of parliament. In the 315-member senate, he was projected to control 167 seats to Mr Veltroni's 137. In the lower house, his conservative bloc led by a margin of 7 percentage points, with 46 per cent of the vote to 39 per cent.

In a phone call to Rai TV, Mr Berlusconi said of his victory: "I'm moved, I feel a great responsibility.

"We have difficult months ahead that will require great strength."

The sale of the struggling state airline Alitalia, mounting piles of uncollected rubbish in Naples and a buffalo mozzarella health scare that has hurt exports of the cheese will be his immediate priorities. A reform of the much- maligned election law is also on the agenda.

Mr Berlusconi said his cabinet would have 12 ministers, including four women. Before ringing off, he added: "An affectionate kiss to all Italians."

Mr Berlusconi had been widely expected to win the lower house easily. But a clear victory in the senate would be an added bonus, strengthening his ability to push through structural reforms needed to pull Italy away from the brink of recession. Tricky coalition talks are expected in the coming days.

Many Italians went to the polls to elect their 62nd government since the Second World War expressing doubts that anyone can turn around an economy that has long lagged behind its main partners in the European Union.

Mr Berlusconi's victory is testament to his political longevity, seeing him return to power after 20 months of centre-left rule by Romano Prodi which failed to tackle many of Italy's problems and left the nation with a sense of malaise and with a stagnating economy.

This was Mr Berlusconi's fifth consecutive attempt at the premiership since 1994, when he stepped into politics from his media empire.

"I think it was a vote against the performance of the Prodi government in the last two years," said Franco Pavoncello, a political science professor at Rome's John Cabot University.

"Mr Berlusconi won because he has a strong coalition and because people feel that, on the other side, the government is going to take them nowhere."

It looks certain that Mr Berlusconi will again have to rule in coalition with the populist Northern League and the right-wing National Alliance, and some analysts said both would resist the kind of shake-up the hidebound economy is crying out for.

"I think Berlusconi's real problem is going to be holding together his coalition," said Gian Enrico Rusconi, a professor of politics at the University of Turin.

"The Northern League is a protectionist party. The National Alliance is a protectionist party. I don't think Berlusconi will be capable of pushing through the reforms Italy needs."

Mr Berlusconi had pledged to slash the debt, cut taxes and liberalise the economy. He also said he would get tough on crime.

He failed earlier in his political career to carry out pledges to revolutionise Italy.

He was prime minister for seven months from April 1994 and from 2001-6 and dominates the Italian media via his business empire.

Forbes magazine rates him the country's third-richest man.

He is the head of a business empire that spans media, advertising, insurance, food and construction and includes the football club AC Milan.

INSULTS AND BLUNDERS OF A GAFFE-PRONE 'JOKER'

SILVIO Berlusconi is the most gaffe-prone European leader of modern times. He has insulted fellow politicians, world leaders and whole countries, and has even been forced to make a grovelling public apology to his wife, Veronica.

In 2002, he was pictured at a European summit making horn gestures with his fingers behind the head of the Spanish foreign minister.

The next year, he insulted German MEP Martin Schulz, comparing him to a concentration camp guard. Even though Mr Berlusconi insisted he was only joking, it caused a brief diplomatic rift between Italy and Germany.

In 2005, when he was opening the European Food Safety Authority in Parma he claimed he had used "playboy tactics" on Finland's female president to get her vote to locate the body in Italy. He also insulted Finland by saying the only thing they had in their cuisine was herring.

Sexism has been a regular theme. The man who has had several facelifts and a hair transplant to try to appear younger once suggested businesses should move to Italy as the secretaries were far prettier than anywhere else in the world. Then, in the current election campaign, he said "centre-right female politicians were far prettier than the centre-left ones".

Two years ago, he was forced to apologise to his wife after she wrote to a newspaper saying she had been offended at his flirting with several attractive women at a TV awards ceremony.

He has also managed to offend the world's largest nation, by saying: "Chinese communists ate babies and it was a well-known fact."