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.

Italy’s financial capital and the base of Berlusconi’s vast business empire has not been held by the left for nearly 20 years. Defeat there would be a shattering blow to the 74-year-old prime minister that could destabilise the government.

First projections after polls closed yesterday showed leftist Giuliano Pisapia ahead in Milan with 52% of the vote against 48% for centre-right mayor Letizia Moratti.

The southern port of Naples is also set to fall to the opposition Italy of Values party.

With the government preparing to bring forward plans to slash the budget deficit by €40 billion after ratings agency Standard and Poor’s cut its outlook for Italy’s A+ rating to “negative” from “stable”, the stakes are high.

Italy has one of the most sluggish economies in Europe, more than a quarter of its young people are unemployed and government policy is constrained by the need to contain a debt mountain equivalent to some 120% of GDP.

In a move seen widely as a signal that he believed defeat in Milan was likely, Berlusconi chose to travel to Romania yesterday. But senior ministers have ruled out any change of course before the national elections in 2013.

“I don’t see any possibility of an alternative government. And I don’t think anyone wants early elections,” defence minister Ignazio La Russa, one of Berlusconi’s most faithful lieutenants, said.

After being punished for initially characterising the vote as a referendum on his popularity and policies, Berlusconi has blanketed the airwaves with trademark tirades against his longtime enemies, the left and “communist” magistrates.

Milan will become an “Islamic gypsyland” if the left wins, he predicted. Leftist voters lacked a brain anyway, he said, prompting internet spoofs and a lawsuit from an offended voter.