Italy Elections

After half a century in the political wilderness, the Italian left stormed to power with centrist allies here Monday, promising a can-do reformist government to modernize Italy's institutions and finances in line with those of its European allies. Final returns from Sunday's national election made plain that the center-left coalition led by the former Italian Communist Party will form Italy's 55th postwar government.

LONDON - First, Silvio Berlusconi, who was driven from power last year by Italy's economic woes and his own scandals, said he wanted back his old job as prime minister. Then Mario Monti, an appointed technocrat who succeeded him at the head of an unelected government, kept the nation guessing for weeks before suddenly declaring that he would dive into politics and seek to lead the next government. They're only part of a perplexing lineup of political candidates voters will face in February's elections as political parties begin a frantic search for coalition partners.

Some facts about Italy's parliamentary elections Sunday: Eligible voters: 49.45 million, or 86% of Italy's 57.7 million citizens. Surveys: Opinion polls are banned in the two weeks leading up to the vote. Turnout: 83% in 1996, the last parliamentary elections. Senate: 232 elected by direct vote; 83, or about 25%, assigned proportionally. In addition to the 315 elected senators, there are nine senators-for-life. A simple majority is 163.

Joy over the liberation of three Italians who spent two months as hostages in Iraq has lapsed into bitter political debate leading into elections this weekend. The government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi rejected accusations Friday that it was using the rescue of the hostages to bolster the ruling party's sagging support.

Do touch that dial! That is the invitation to TV-watching Italian voters this weekend from reformers plotting to overhaul the most blatantly political and closely held national television system in Western Europe. Ninety percent of Italy's 57 million viewers regularly watch one of six channels--three of them state-owned, the other three owned by former and would-be Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Maria Luisa Boccia, a rookie political candidate puzzling out campaign tactics in a smoky basement headquarters, symbolizes her expectant and perplexed country. Boccia knows where she wants to go, but isn't sure how to get there. Italy heads this weekend into national elections marked by scandal, uncertainty and unlikely alliances, all punctuated by tumult enough for a temperamental diva.

Italy's ousted premier, Romano Prodi, gave up trying to form a new government and threw his support to a former Communist, Massimo D'Alema, after calling on President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to say he had failed in two days of talks aimed at winning back the support of a majority of lawmakers. Prodi's center-left government fell Oct. 9 when he lost a vote of confidence in Parliament. "A heavy burden has been lifted from my shoulders," Prodi said, "but it was a burden I'd have like to have kept."

Italians Allow Berlusconi to Keep TV Networks: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi can continue to own three television stations, voters decided in a referendum, according to early projections. The stations can also continue to show advertisements during movies, according to the exit polls. These were among 12 issues put to Italian voters in Sunday's referendum. Final results will be known today.

Italian voters go to the polls Sunday to elect 15 regional, 76 provincial and 5,136 municipal governments. The balloting is billed as a bruising right-left showdown and a trial heat for national elections in the fall. On the right, the vote will mark a major test for billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister whose government fell in December, and Gianfranco Fini, who has led the hard-liners away from their neo-fascist roots.

An extraordinary political year limps to a close in Italy today amid dispiriting national recognition that, after months of great ferment and hope, nothing at all has changed. The actors are new but not the plot: There is no effective government or much prospect of one arriving any time soon.

Italians voted to overhaul the country's constitution, handing greater autonomy and financial muscle to its regions, final results from a weekend referendum show. Sunday's referendum means the central government's powers will now be limited to foreign affairs, defense, public order, justice, electoral legislation, the environment and some education matters.

Eager to take his place at two European summits this week, Silvio Berlusconi received a formal mandate from Italy's president Saturday to assemble a Cabinet and assume the job of prime minister as early as today. The two men met in the evening after a month of haggling among the media tycoon's center-right allies over the spoils of a May 13 election and Italy's place on a continent whose policies of unification are at odds with key parts of his program.

Francesco Rutelli, who lost the race for prime minister of Italy, collected a consolation prize Tuesday as the center-left Olive Tree coalition chose him to lead it into opposition, eclipsing a former Communist who has dominated the political bloc during its five years in power. The choice was in line with a shift by Italian voters in Sunday's election toward moderate, pragmatic candidates at the expense of more ideologically driven ones on the right and left.

Some facts about Italy's parliamentary elections Sunday: Eligible voters: 49.45 million, or 86% of Italy's 57.7 million citizens. Surveys: Opinion polls are banned in the two weeks leading up to the vote. Turnout: 83% in 1996, the last parliamentary elections. Senate: 232 elected by direct vote; 83, or about 25%, assigned proportionally. In addition to the 315 elected senators, there are nine senators-for-life. A simple majority is 163.

"Blob," a television show that exposes gaffes by newscasters, actors and other VIPs, aired a lively exchange this week between conservative tycoon Silvio Berlusconi and Rome's former mayor, Francesco Rutelli, the opposing candidates for prime minister of Italy. They were interrupted several times by close-up film of predatory insects--an odd clue that the three-minute segment was a hoax.

Silvio Berlusconi's term as prime minister in 1994 lasted only seven turbulent months, but never mind. That matters as little now as his three subsequent convictions--overturned on appeal--for false business accounting and bribing the tax police, and the four indictments he still faces. Nor does it matter much that Berlusconi, Italy's richest person, wants to govern again without giving up control of the country's three largest private television networks and the rest of his corporate empire.

Beware the votes of March. Not since Caesar got bushwhacked on his way to the Forum can there have been this much venom in a Roman spring. In scope and snarl, the name-calling and mudslinging are positively imperial. Et tu, Politico ! There are dirty tricks enough to make a gladiator blush. The free-for-all campaign prefaces national elections beginning this weekend that are Italy's most traumatic in four decades.

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.

A week after his appointment, Prime Minister Giuliano Amato won a legislative mandate Friday night to head Italy's 58th postwar government and try to keep the country's bickering centrist and leftist forces in power until scheduled elections next spring.

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi won Italy's presidency with broad support from lawmakers on the left and right. Ciampi, who was treasury minister, won after a single round of voting by the two houses of Parliament and regional representatives--only the third such victory in postwar Italy. He garnered 707 of 990 votes, more than the two-thirds needed. To many, the easy win suggested that the center-right and center-left are ready to work together on reforming Italy's cumbersome political system.