UPDATE: The PDL is still excluded from the lists in the province of Rome. Only the civic list of Renata Polverini was readmitted last night. It simply means that those who wish to vote for the rightwing coalition in Rome and its province cannot vote for Berlusconi's personal political entity. They may vote for the other parties that support Polverini. As for Formigoni he is plain out of the competition.

The person responsible for having presented the PDL's irregular lists late declared to reporters last night that "...revenge is a plate to be served cold." This apparently alludes to his previous behaviour in 2005 when he tried to pull the same trick. His famous "sandwich" break was deliberate.

Having little else to do, PDL big shots have taken to making calumnious accusations against the Radical party for having some how screwed them up. Berlusconi and his flunkies once again demonstrate an utter incapacity to recognize responsibility for their own actions.

Last night Berlusconi attempted to convince President Napolitano of the necessity of a law decree to allow the PDL to participate in the competition in Lombardy and Rome. It appears that Napolitano would only sign into law a bill approved by all parties in parliament but invited Berlusconi to wait until a final sentence in both cases.

Berlusconi has prepared a decree that will change the rules during the game. At this point it's merely a question of propaganda and media blitzkriegs, made all the easier by the television news blackout. The PDL seeks to depict itself as a victim of an anti-democratic putsch. (That it was of their own doing is swept under the rug.) By voting a law by simple majority (the opposition has declared they would not vote for it) Berlusconi will put Napolitano on the spot, forcing an institutional crisis.  

The position of the racist ally Lega Nord is anything but ambiguous. Bossi has everything to gain from the chaos in Rome and Lombardy. He need only sit back and wait until the dust settles.

The opposition leader Di Pietro just accused Berlusconi of planning a coup d'état. He warned that if Berlusconi continues with his plans there will be organized resistance in the streets.

The rhetoric on both sides of the fence is at the breaking point.

de Gondi:

Renata Polverini, the PDL candidate for president of the Lazio region, has called for a demonstration in Rome on Thursday afternoon, after a first court appeal failed to reintroduce her list on Tuesday. "They want a trial of strength from the streets, we will give it to them," she told reporters. "We will be ever so many."

A few hundred turned up in Piazza Farnese. Polverini tried to get them to sing a song by Lucio Battisti. During the rally it was announced that Polverini had been readmitted in the polls.

AS FOR NOW: Berlusconi has just licensed off a decree that would readmit his party back in the competition in Lombardy and Rome (21:35 local time). The decree, as reported here today, will cause a harsh confrontation in parliament as well as with the President of the Republic. Di Pietro has characterized Berlusconi's act as putsch. He stated a few minutes ago that the armed forces should be called out to block the impending dictatorship. Less polemic voices point out that the decree violates the constitution.

The decree is seen as an outright abuse of power without precedent. In the past, parties have been excluded from elections on similar grounds. In some cases elections have been called null because of grave procedural or substantive irregularities. It sufficed to repeat the elections. In no case has parliament ever intervened with ad hoc legislation to favour a party's readmission in an electoral contest.

The scenarios that open up may see a massive boycott of the elections by the left which would play into the hands of the rightwing. If the President refuses to sign the decree, the Rightwing may be tempted into adventurism to will a grave institutional crisis. It appears Berlusconi is gambling on his adversaries' prudence which would lead to having him get his way.

Berlusconi is at his best in attack and has always made gains by forcing events to accomplished facts, invariably by illegal means. His blackout of all in depth news programs will keep large parts of the public in the dark while his authoritarian control over primetime news programs will disinform the public.

The entire affair has distracted attention from the grave scandals that implicate Berlusconi's closest collaborators.

On another case today, the Court of Appeals has condemned all 44 of the police officers and doctors that participated in the Bolzaneto beatings during the Genova G8 in 2001. In the first trial only 15 were found guilty of torture. Thanks to laws passed by Prodi and Berlusconi the statute of limitations has timed out the sentence. Nevertheless, just as in the Mill's guilty sentence, the guilty must pay damages to the victims.