Italy’s Berlusconi likely headed for 3rd term

ROME – Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, a flamboyant billionaire and media tycoon, was headed for a third term as prime minister today, after initial election results gave him a clear victory and his chief rival conceded defeat.

Projections by the state broadcaster RAI and other polling organizations gave Berlusconi and his center-right coalition, including a xenophobic party based in northern Italy, a more-than-comfortable lead over their nearest rival, former mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni and his center-left Democratic Party.

Veltroni went before supporters at his Rome headquarters tonight to concede defeat. He said that he had telephoned Berlusconi to congratulate him.

Berlusconi telephoned his main ally, Gianfranco Fini of the National Alliance Party, and expressed “deep satisfaction” with the results, the Italian news agency Ansa reported tonight.

Voters turned out in high numbers but, generally, with little enthusiasm. A prevailing theme among many, regardless of who they supported, was that Italy is in serious economic trouble and the next government may not be able to change the nation’s course.

Neither Berlusconi nor Veltroni offered creative plans for rescuing Italy from its spiral of high inflation and stagnant growth. In fact, their platforms coincided on several points and neither inspired much faith. Even Berlusconi, known for his often outrageous and politically incorrect comments, ran a relatively lukewarm campaign.

Numerous voters said they cast their ballot based on lifelong party affiliations, not attraction to one candidate or another.

At the Leonardo Da Vinci High School in Rome, Alessandra Sordini, 74, said she was voting for Berlusconi because as a businessman he stood a better chance of being able to fix the economy.

“We have been drowning and we need to stay afloat and begin to work and produce. It’s a hope, a hope that he can change something,” she said.

“Besides,” added Sordini, a housewife and great-grandmother, “he makes me laugh. These others made us weep.”

Her husband, Amedeo Rosa, 81, a retired jeweler, said he also supported Berlusconi. “Worse than now it can’t get.”

Of course, it can get worse. And that was one thing voter Francesca Cucchi said she was worried about.

“I tremble – tremble – at the idea that the parliament will be split 50-50, they won’t be able to pass any laws, and we will be in a legislative paralysis,” said Cucchi, 42, a theater administrator.

Much-criticized election laws, partly a legacy of an earlier Berlusconi administration, make it difficult for a single faction to gain a clear majority.

Cucchi voted for Veltroni and his Democratic Party, though she said she didn’t expect her candidate to win.

“Whoever governs will have big problems with the economy,” she said. “It’s not that Veltroni has a magic wand, nor that Berlusconi doesn’t know what to do. I just hope that if the left wins, they can help the middle class, which used to be a middle class but now has become poor.”

Berlusconi, 71, one of Italy’s richest men, known for political incorrectness and a fondness for plastic surgery, has promised to cut taxes and expel illegal immigrants. He blames Italy’s current economic crisis, marked by high inflation and stagnant growth, on the outgoing center-left government of Romano Prodi, which collapsed after 20 months three years ahead of schedule. Before Prodi, Berlusconi ruled Italy for five years, from 2001-2006, achieving the rare distinction of completing an entire term.

Veltroni, 52, less charismatic but popular as mayor, is also promising modest tax cuts and to reform Italy’s jumbled immigration laws. A former communist, he has cast himself as an agent for change in a stultified political system and attached priority to changing the election law.

An estimated 47 million Italians are eligible to vote for what will be the country’s 62nd government in the 63 years since the end of World War II.

tracy wilkinson@latimes.com