Just weeks ahead of regional elections - which Silvio Berlusconi himself called an "important national test" of his support - the Italian Prime Minister's People of Freedom (PDL) party finds itself in a state of chaos. After a court confirmed that the PDL had missed a deadline to submit its list for the regional assembly in Lazio, Italy's third largest region, Berlusconi held a press conference on Wednesday during which he attacked and blamed the opposition for the pre-election fiasco. "The behavior of the left has been and remains anti-democratic and wretched, while we have behaved in the opposite way," a pugnacious and visibly fatigued Berlusconi told reporters.
Just weeks ahead of regional elections - which Silvio Berlusconi himself called an "important national test" of his support - the Italian Prime Minister's People of Freedom (PDL) party finds itself in a state of chaos.
After a court confirmed that the PDL had missed a deadline to submit its list for the regional assembly in Lazio, Italy's third largest region, Berlusconi held a press conference on Wednesday during which he attacked and blamed the opposition for the pre-election fiasco.
"The behavior of the left has been and remains anti-democratic and wretched, while we have behaved in the opposite way," a pugnacious and visibly fatigued Berlusconi told reporters.
The Italian Parliament approved a law on Wednesday that would protect Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, left, and his cabinet from the results of trials that are currently under way, on the grounds that the trials would impede their ability to govern. Mr. Berlusconi's cabinet advanced the measure after Italy's Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional a law that granted immunity from prosecution to the prime minister and other senior office holders.
