Berlusconi ratings slip

A CORRUPTION scandal, an unpopular austerity budget and a string of government resignations have pushed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s popularity to a new low, a new opinion poll showed.

The poll in La Repubblica newspaper showed Berlusconi’s approval rating had fallen to 39% and is now 10 percentage points lower than it was a year ago.

La Repubblica is a left-leaning daily but the results of its IPR survey mirror those published in the last few weeks by other newspapers.