Berlusconi faces stiff test in Italian local elections

ITALIANS voted yesterday in local elections that will show whether a sex scandal, three corruption trials and a stagnating economy have seriously damaged Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi two years before the end of his term.

Some 13 million Italians, nearly a quarter of the population, are eligible to vote in 1,310 towns and provinces, although turnout is expected to be relatively low.

The most important contests are in the four big cities of Turin, Naples, Bologna and Milan — Italy’s business capital and Berlusconi’s home town, where his centre-right coalition runs the risk of losing for the first time in nearly 20 years.