First of all you would have a very hard time convincing me that the Western European press, including the right wing press, is biased towards Berlusconi - from what I can tell they can't stand the guy and were rooting for his defeat.  Secondly, while I do think that the different headline would be the one you suggest, there's a perfectly innocent explanation - expectations. During the run up to the elections polls consistently predicted a narrow but clear victory by the left, the exit polls said that that is what probably happened as well. Then there was a period of uncertainty followed by the actual results: a wafer thin majority. So the left did a bit worse than expected, Berlusconi a bit better. If he had managed to pull out a victory that would have been the big news - hence the hypothetical headline. Lower down there would, I assure you, have been plenty of speculation as to his ability to govern given the narrowness of his victory. There was certainly a lot of that with Berlusconi's much clearer victory in the previous elections. Finally, paralysis and chaos - it is a serious danger given the heterogenity of the coalition which from what I can tell includes everything from center right types who can't stand Berlusconi to the very hard left. So all in all, nothing to get upset about. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.