Berlusconi polls signal ‘Italian Spring’

THEY are calling it the Italian Spring.

After Silvio Berlusconi’s long years in power, the electorate rose up and said they had enough of the prime minister, overturning laws passed by his government to revive nuclear energy, privatise the water supply and help him avoid prosecution.

The defeat was Berlusconi’s second in as many weeks after losing key local races in his Milan power base and Naples and raised the question, would he go swiftly or try to hang on as others are doing?

After such a clear-cut result in the referendum vote, quite unusual for Italy, leading newspaper Corriere della Sera concluded that Italy was witnessing “the sunset of a long season”.

“If the local elections were a slap in the face, this is a KO for the centre-right,” it said.

Or as Giacomo Gemelli, who takes tourists on horse and carriage rides, put it as he sat near Rome’s Pantheon: “I am sorry to say that maybe it is time for Berlusconi to go home. There is movement in Italy. I see it by the way the Italian people are behaving.”

With turnout topping 57%, it was the first time since 1995 that the quorum of more than 50% had been reached to validate a referendum.

The erosion in Berlusconi’s popularity has been slow in coming, but it has picked up speed in recent months.

There are growing concerns among Italians over their sluggish economy and embarrassment over Berlusconi’s sordid sex scandal that he allegedly paid an underage prostitute for sex and used his office to cover it up. He denies the charges.

Final results showed overwhelming majorities of those casting ballots chose to throw out two laws to privatise the water supply, kill a law reviving nuclear energy and undo the “legitimate impediment” law offering the Italian leader a partial legal shield in criminal prosecutions.

Each referendum passed with around 95% support.

In what amounted to a concession speech, Berlusconi said in a statement that “the high turnout for the referendums demonstrates that the desire of citizens to participate in the decisions about our future cannot be ignored”.

In fact, analysts said the vote reflected not just judgment on Berlusconi but the relationship between government and the people, pointing to a 1974 referendum approving divorce that marked the beginning of the end of Christian Democrat dominance and a 1991 vote on an electoral law that undermined Socialist leader Bettino Craxi.

“This is our spring,” said Ugo Mattei, a lawyer and contributor to Italy’s leftist Il Manifesto newspaper who led activists across political lines in fighting the privatisation of water.

For the first time in an election, the involvement of civil society was clear in the online campaigns and social networking to both bring out the vote and foster lively exchanges among young people.

“The magic flute is broken. After 20 years, Italians have stopped following Berlusconi’s music,” the leftist La Repubblica daily said.