Summary
ONCE upon a time, Italian governments changed several times a year and hardly anyone noticed. That was because most of Italy had learned to live without its incompetent and corrupt politicians. If anyone can be said to have changed that state of affairs, it is Silvio Berlusconi. Like him or loathe him, Mr Berlusconi has brought a welcome degree of political stability to Italy over the past five years. One result is that the world is anxiously watching for the outcome of Italy's cliff-hanger election.
Early exit polls suggested Mr Berlusconi had been rejected by the voters. This was no great surprise - his coalition has suffered repeated losses in local and regional elections in recent years as the economy has drifted. Mr Berlusconi also added to his own woes by making the election campaign particularly vitriolic. The final straw was his unconvincing last-minute offer of tax cuts at a time when the Italian state budget was already in deep debt.See the full content of this document
Extract
Leader:Cliff-Hanger for All Europe
However, the final result may be too close to call. The complex regional geography of Italian voting makes it difficult to translate national polls into parliamentary seats. And Italian voters are as fickle about telling ...
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