Berlusconi returns to power

Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi tonight won a decisive victory in Italy’s parliamentary elections – a remarkable return to power for the billionaire media mogul.

Capitalising on widespread discontent in the country over the stagnating economy and the failure of the outgoing centre-left government, Mr Berlusconi’s party clinched victories in both houses of parliament, according to vote projections and early vote count.

“I’m moved, I feel a great responsibility,” Mr Berlusconi said from his villa outside Milan.

He said he was open to working with the opposition, pledged to fight tax evasion, reform justice and reduce public debt. Mr Berlusconi said he would reduce the number of Cabinet ministers to 12, including four women.

His centre-left rival, Walter Veltroni, conceded defeat, saying the outcome was “clear even if we wait for the final data.” Mr Veltroni called Mr Berlusconi to congratulate him.

In the Senate – a race that had been expected to be close – Mr Berlusconi was projected to have won 167 seats compared to 137 for his rival. The Senate has 315 seats.

In the lower house of parliament, Berlusconi’s conservative bloc was leading by a margin of 7%, or 46% of the vote to 39%. A one-vote majority is enough to give the winning party a solid majority of seats.

The victory of the 71-year-old is testament to his political longevity – and sees him return to power after 20 months of centre-left rule by Premier Romano Prodi that failed to tackle many of Italy’s problems and left the nation with a sense of malaise and a stagnating economy.

This was Mr Berlusconi’s fifth consecutive attempt at the premiership since 1994, when he stepped into politics from his media empire. He has fended off challenges to his leadership by his conservative allies, survived conflict of interests accusations and criminal trials.

“I think it was a vote against the performance of the Prodi government in the last two years,” said Franco Pavoncello, a political science professor at Rome’s John Cabot University.

“Berlusconi won because he has a strong coalition and because people feel that on the other side, the government is going to take them nowhere.”

A sense of malaise hung over the elections as Italians cast their ballots yesterday and today.

Many Italians are pessimistic that the ruling class – dominated for years by the same key figures – can offer much chance of change. They complain about the poor state of the economy and the fact that their purchasing power has decreased.

Signs of decline abound, from piles of uncollected rubbish in Naples, to a buffalo mozzarella heath scare that has hurt exports and hit one of the country’s culinary treasures, to the faltering sale of the state airline Alitalia.

A movement led by comedian-turned-moraliser Beppe Grillo had invited Italians to boycott the vote.

But as the nation remains highly polarised politically, turnout stood only 4 points behind the last national vote in 2006 – 80% compared with 84%, according to data from the Interior Ministry.

The results were a disaster for the far-left, whom Mr Veltroni cut loose in an attempt to divorce himself from problematic smaller parties that hamstrung Mr Prodi’s government.

The Rainbow Left failed to reach the threshold to enter parliament, prompting the resignation of long-standing Communist leader Fausto Bertinotti.

“The defeat was of unexpected proportions, which makes it even more bitter,” Mr Bertinotti said at a news conference.

Berlusconi has no easy task. A long list of problems await him, from cleaning the streets of Naples, which he has indicated as his top priority, to improving an economy that has underperformed the rest of the euro zone for years.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts that the Italian economy, the world’s seven largest, will grow 0.3% this year, compared with a 1.4% average growth for the 15-country euro area.

Berlusconi will also need to make structural reforms that economists say are needed, such as streamlining the decision-making progress and cut the costs associated to politics. A reform of the much-maligned current election law is also on the agenda.