http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,533444,00.html
SPIEGEL ONLINE - February 6, 2008, 11:51 AM URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,533444,00.html A THIRD TERM FOR BERLUSCONI? Italy to Hold Snap Elections in April Attempts to form an interim government in Italy have failed and President Giorgio Napolitano has been forced to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections for April. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition is way ahead in the opinion polls and the media magnate looks likely to secure a third term in office. Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi is poised to take power once again. <http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1088885,00.jpg> AP Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi is poised to take power once again. Observers outside Italy may be looking on in disbelief but it appears that media magnate Silvio Berlusconi is about to be given another crack at power in Rome. Italians are to be asked to go the polls again, just 20 months after Prime Minister Romano Prodi's center-left coalition took office. President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament on Wednesday, clearing the way for snap elections, most likely to be held in mid-April. And current opinion polls predict that the two-time Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is poised to sweep back into power. President Napolitano met with the speakers of both houses of parliament on Tuesday evening, a formality required before the legislature can be closed. He met with Prodi, now caretaker prime minister, at the presidential palace on Wednesday morning to formally dissolve parliament. The cabinet then met and set the election date for April 13-14. Napolitano had asked the Senate Speaker Franco Marini to try to form an interim government that would be charged with reforming Italy's electoral law. However, Berlusconi and other center-right leaders blocked any such deal, knowing that they already have a significant lead in the opinion polls. The center-left campaign will be headed by Rome Mayor Walter <http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,513607,00.html> Veltroni, who supported the idea of an interim government changing the voting rules. The current system of proportional representation, introduced by Berlusconi in 2005, has been criticized for giving too much weight to small parties, thus almost guaranteeing instability. A referendum on the issue of electoral reform had been scheduled for May 18, but as any referendum gets automatically postponed by one year in the case of dissolution of parliament, Italians will now have to wait until 2009 to have a say on the issue. Prodi's government fell victim to the inherent weakness of the system, after a tiny Catholic party withdrew its support, provoking the <http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,530904,00.html> collapse of the coalition on Jan. 24. His administration had been consistently undermined by bickering between the nine ruling parties, particularly the Catholic and Communist groups. There is a widespread assumption that Berlusconi will win the forthcoming snap elections, assuring him a third term in office. And the media millionaire has indicated that he is open to talks on electoral reform with the center-left after the vote, but media commentators are already predicting more instability ahead. "Looking at how the Prodi government ended up, and the derailment of its smaller allies, stability is a gamble for Berlusconi as well," leading daily Corriere della Sera commented on Wednesday. And many German newspapers also assume that Berlusconi will soon be back at the helm in Rome soon. The center-left Süddetusche Zeitung writes: "You are only as strong as your opponent allows you to be, and Romano Prodi was extremely weak. He had to rule with nine parties, who were all more concerned with their own interests than the common good. That frustrated many Italians, but the return of Berlusconi will not allay their worries." The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung comments: "The return of Berlusconi at the center of Italian power and on the international stage could just be a question of weeks. That may be to astonishment of observers abroad but not the Italian voters ... The Italians know their Berlusconi and know that he doesn't see any conflict of interest in being in politics and business. It doesn't seem to shock them." The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung is pessimistic about the role Berlusconi is likely to play in Europe. "With him it will be almost impossible to reliably agree on a European position, for example if the Iran crisis were to escalate. Then Berlusconi will decide as he always does: on the basis of short-term opportunistic considerations. He won't strengthen Italy in this way -- but he is sure to weaken Europe." smd/ap/reuters [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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