Berlusconi back on top

It’s official, Silvio Berlusconi is back in power in Italy after a significant victory in the country’s election Sunday and Monday.

The return of a former leader who was only ousted two years ago may not seem like a watershed moment, but the voting patterns were significant and could (I emphasize could) bring significant change down the line. In a country known for a vast menagerie of various parties making up its parliament, voters for the most part stuck with just the two big party formations in this election: Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) and Veltroni’s newly-formed Democratic Party (PD). More than eight in 10 voters backed one or the other, and in the end the elections put only five separate parties into the parliament.

Italian election looming

There’s just three days to go until the big Italian election. As someone who is (hopefully) becoming a citizen of that country in a few months, I’ve been taking a keen interest. But it isn't just me. All the capitals of Europe are looking to Rome apprehensively, wondering if Italy is ever going to fix its government problem.

Let’s not mince words, the country’s political system is a mess. Since World War II it has seen a revolving door of governments that continually collapse and reshape. In its first 50 years of democracy Italy had 50 different governments. In fact the controversial conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi, who served as prime minister for five years before the current Prime Minister Romano Prodi unseated him in 2006, was the longest-serving Italian prime minister ever. Now Prodi’s fractious alliance between the center and far left has fallen apart in typical Italian fashion, the government was dissolved when the communists walked out and a new election was called.

Now Berlusconi is polling as much as nine points ahead, and Europe is bracing itself for another period of hard-handed rule by the media tycoon, who many people see as a bombastic demagogue. Disliked as he may be, many Italians now see him as the only solution to Italy’s chaos. But while he might bring stability, it would be hard to argue he will bring progress. His reign was marred by media censorship, economic stagnation and corruption scandals. Under his leadership Italy’s debt grew ever higher than its GDP and the promises of economic improvement he had made failed to materialize. However during the brief Prime Ministership of Romano Prodi, Italy's budget-deficit-to-GDP ratio fell from 4.4 percent in to 2.4 percent.