A Kick in the Teeth for Berlusconi

international | politics / elections | news report Wednesday June 16, 2004 17:38 by hs - sp

serious defeat for silvio

A Kick in the Teeth for Berlusconi

A massacre for the centre right coalition in provincial and city council elections

A Kick in the Teeth for Berlusconi

A massacre for the centre right coalition in provincial and city council elections

In local and provincial elections the Berlusconi government has suffered defeat after defeat right across Italy.
Centre left and centre left - communist coalitions have won (so far) 38 provinces and 18 city councils compared to centre right victories in only 3 provinces and a handful of cities mainly in Sicily. In the provincial elections centre left - communist coalitions often won by margins of 2 to 1 while making important victories on the island of Sardinia.

In the traditionally leftist central region of Emilia Romagna centre left communist coalitions won in seven out of eight provinces on the first count. A massive victory in the province of Bologna saw an almost incredible margin of 63,4% to the centre rights 17.2%. In Tuscany another traditional leftist region centre left communist coalitions won all eight provinces on the first count. In Livorno the left took 59.3% compared to 29.7% for the right. The left also took all the provinces in Umbria.

In the Southern region of Campania the left took the important province of Naples while in Puglia the left (at the time of writing) has taken three out of four provinces. In the northern region of Lombardio the count is continuing while in Piemonte the left has taken three provinces so far.

In the city council elections the left took all of Emilia Romagna, including the recapture of Bologna itself. In Tuscany at the time of writing the left had taken 3 cities including Florence. In the South the left have won power in both Naples and Bari.

Only in Sicily the right saw victories although the party of Berlusconi, Forza Italia saw a huge drop in support with many voters switching to the Christian Democrats or the National Alliance. And the communist left made major gains.