Berlusconi Austerity Move Rebuffed by Italian Voters

In a major test of its popularity after six months in office, Italian voters widely rebuffed rookie Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s free-market political party Monday in municipal elections that largely favored former Communists and neo-fascists.

As final returns were counted from the Sunday vote, analysts portrayed the results as a protest against billionaire Berlusconi’s attempt to impose austerity on a spendthrift national government with painful cuts in pensions and social services.

An estimated 2 million voters elected mayors in 239 Italian cities and towns in races that were principally decided on local issues but also were a national barometer of political malaise.

Overall, the former Communists, now called the Democratic Party of the Left, won the most votes, sometimes in improbable municipal alliances with supporters of Roman Catholic parties--their former worst enemies. The right-wing National Alliance, which emerged from postwar neo-fascism to become a partner in Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition, ran second nationwide.

Forza Italia, the movement that Berlusconi founded earlier this year and carried to power in his political debut at March elections, ran a poor third. The federalist Northern League, third pillar of the government, ran respectably without showing new strength.

In Pisa, a leftist candidate won outright election with an absolute majority. Where there was no absolute majority, runoffs on Dec. 4 between the top two finishers will pit leftists against candidates of the National Alliance in many cities.

In one closely watched race Sunday in the northern industrial city of Brescia, Mino Martinazzoli, former head of the disgraced Christian Democrats, easily outdistanced Vito Gnutti, Northern League candidate and national industry minister.

The election marked the first rejection of Berlusconi since he entered politics to head off what he feared would be a left-wing, anti-free-market victory in the spring election.

Forza Italia improved on its national showing in June voting for the European Parliament, but Berlusconi is now under sharp attack from rank-and-file taxpayers who take a dim view of his attempt to reduce government debt by slashing liberal pensions and overburdened social services.