Exit polls indicate Berlusconi trails Prodi in election

Centre-left challenger Romano Prodi was leading conservative Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in parliamentary elections, an exit poll indicated today.

The Nexus poll indicated that Prodi’s coalition had received 50-54% of the vote in both the upper and lower chambers of parliament, while Berlusconi’s coalition had 45-49%.

The exit poll broadcast by state-run RAI television and Berlusconi’s Mediaset channels had a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.

Berlusconi, 69, a billionaire media mogul and the longest-serving Italian premier since the Second World War, failed to jump-start a flat economy during his tenure. He founded a business empire that expanded to include Italy’s main private TV networks, the Milan soccer team, as well as publishing, advertising and insurance interests.

He was battling to capture his third premiership with a centre-right bloc – an often squabbling coalition of his Forza Italia party, the former neo-fascist National Alliance, pro-Vatican forces and the anti-immigrant Northern League.

Prodi, 66, was making his comeback bid with a potentially unwieldy coalition of moderate Christian Democrats, Greens, liberals, former Communists and Communists.

One potential issue – Iraq – was largely deflated before the campaign began, when Berlusconi announced that Italy’s troops there would be withdrawn by the end of the year.

Berlusconi had strongly supported US President George Bush over Iraq despite fierce opposition among Italians against the war.

Prodi has said he would bring troops home as soon as possible, security conditions permitting.

While Italians were mainly preoccupied by economic worries, the candidates seemed to throw more insults at each other than comprehensive recipes for turning around the economy.

Berlusconi promised to abolish a homeowner’s property tax. Prodi said he would revive an inheritance tax abolished by Berlusconi, but only for the richest. He also promised to cut payroll taxes to try to spur hiring.

Critics contended that instead of helping the economy, Berlusconi used his comfortable majority in Parliament above all to push through laws to protect his business interests and help him in his years of judicial woes. Berlusconi contends the laws benefit all Italians and that he has been the innocent victim of left-leaning prosecutors.

Berlusconi depicted Prodi as a front-man for Communists in a campaign to damage Italian democracy.

Italians were voting under a proportional system, thanks to a law pushed through by Berlusconi’s government to increase the chances that his smaller allies would win seats in Parliament.

On the first day of voting yesterday, a few voters at scattered polling stations demanded – some of them successfully – that crucifixes be removed from public schools hosting the balloting, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.