Word: berlusconis
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...Silvio Berlusconi's critics used to worry about what he might do once in office: slant media coverage, rewrite laws to favor his own business and legal interests, embarrass Italy with gaffes on the world stage. Many of those fears, though perhaps not the worst of them, were realized in the media mogul's last term in office, from 2001 to 2006. But now that Berlusconi has swept back to his third term as Prime Minister with an impressive victory over former Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, Italians are more concerned about what he might not do. Italy faces difficult public...
...Berlusconi will enjoy a healthy majority in both houses of parliament. The Italian electorate punished the center-left for its failure to respond to the country's needs under Romano Prodi, whose less than two years in office now amount to a brief interregnum bracketed by Berlusconi. But the 71-year-old center-right leader must overcome Italians' deep-seated doubts that any politician can kick the country into gear...
...Berlusconi could be pulled towards the right by his biggest ally, the anti-immigrant Northern League party, which garnered an impressive 8% to 9% of the vote, as of late polling Monday. The most immediate outcome of the vote may be to scuttle negotiations for Air France-KLM to takeover ailing national carrier Alitalia, which both Berlusconi and the Northern League had openly opposed...
...revolving-door line-up of gray Christian Democratic leaders who shared power with smaller parties in a establishment of backroom deals and Byzantine rhetoric more likely to confound rather than communicate with real people. But for the past 14 years, the political arena has been dominated by Berlusconi, the neon version of the billionaire in a blue pinstripe suit, making the hard sell in simple, sometimes bawdy language. Some said it was a welcome change from the politics of the past, and he won a short-lived victory in 1994 before his center-right allies turned against him. When...
...downs, Berlusconi has remained a unique figure in the West, who plays by his own rules and often doesn't seem to suffer the consequences. Still, although the election result is a personal vindication for Berlusconi, there's little sign of the optimism and enthusiasm that he generated in 2001. Most polls show that voters on both sides of the political spectrum were generally disillusioned with Italy's political class, even though 80% of the electorate showed up at the polls. A Roman taxi driver, Filippo, who'd voted for Berlusconi, was listening to the radio, just as Veltroni...