June 8th - Relief

Berlusconi's frequent boasts that 75% of the electorate supported him, and that well over 40% would vote for his party in last week-end's elections, can now be seen to have been as mendacious as so many of his other assertions. I hope shortly to translate, and place on the Passaparola page, the excellent analysis of the results by Marco Travaglio. In brief, they were disappointing results for both large parties, and therefore for the prospect of Italy becoming a two-party democracy any time soon. The two clear winners were, firstly Antonio Di Pietro, who has been foremost in condemning the erosion of the rule of law, and secondly the Northern League. The League stands for many distasteful things, but it does not stand for automatically giving Berlusconi the benefit of every possible doubt. Its stronger standing in the coalition government after the election will act as some kind of check on the tendency to autocracy that has recently been so alarming.