Berlusconi facing defeat in Milan power base

ITALIAN prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was facing defeat in his northern power base of Milan yesterday in local elections that will raise doubts over the future of his fragile centre-right coalition government.

Facing three corruption trials and a lurid sex scandal, Berlusconi, the dominant figure in Italian politics for nearly two decades, suffered a drubbing in last week’s first round.

An uninspired centre-left easily held on to power in Turin and Bologna and the setbacks have unleashed divisions in the ruling alliance, with Berlusconi’s allies in the Northern League particularly alarmed at the prospect of losing Milan.