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Europe
Either Berlusconi or Prodi wins Italian election
2006-04-11
Berlusconi clings to power
Vote projections in Italy indicate the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may defy early predictions and cling to power in both houses of Parliament. Early TV exit polls suggested the centre-left opposition would win the Upper House or Senate. Left wing supporters were jubilant and Opposition Leader Romano Prodi was said to be preparing for a victory speech. But then early counting suggested Mr Berlusconi's right-wing coalition would hold on to the Lower House. TV stations are now predicting Italy's longest serving post-war government could actually win, defying opinion polls during the campaign.

Italian poll is too close to call
Italian Italian general election is getting to be too close to call with latest projections giving Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition a slender lead in both the Senate and the lower house of deputies. Exit polls and initial projections, however, had given the edge to the centre-left coalition led by Romano Prodi. Projections based on 95% of pollster Nexus's voting sampling gave Berlusconi's alliance 158 seats in the Senate against 151 for Prodi. However, with a margin of error of 1 to 3 percentage points, the majority was not assured, and six seats chosen by Italians voting abroad were unaccounted for in the projections.

Prodi Claims Italian Election Victory; Recount Sought
Romano Prodi claimed victory in the Italian election, even though it won't be clear until later today whether he'll get a mandate to form a government. ``We won,'' Prodi said at 2:53 a.m. ``Now we must work together to unify this country.'' Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, contested Prodi's victory claim and demanded a recount of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies. Final results showed Prodi's alliance taking control of the Chamber, winning by a margin of just 25,224 out of more than 38 million votes cast. Berlusconi's coalition held a one-seat lead in the Senate, with the results of six seats for Italians living abroad to be determined later today.
I dunno about you, but I certainly feel on top of things...
Posted by:Fred

#4  To Italy:
Do not let Al Gore into your country until the election is settled.
Posted by: Jackal   2006-04-11 08:53  

#3  Slim Prodi win brings Italian uncertainty

ROME - Center-left leader Romano Prodi claimed victory in Italy‘s election on Tuesday but his tiny margin raised fears of political paralysis and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi‘s allies demanded a review of the count. Prodi‘s alliance won in the lower house and Sky Italia TV projected that it would have a majority of one or two seats in the upper house Senate thanks to votes of Italians abroad that were still being collated. "We can govern for five years," Prodi told reporters. "Of course we‘ll need cooperation, but last night I said we would work for all Italians, not just some of them."

However, the victory margin was so slim that the Center-right contested it and markets worried that Prodi would have a hard time enacting badly-needed reforms, cutting Italy‘s debt mountain or tackling its budget deficit. Milan‘s stock market fell more than 1 percent over concern about the political uncertainty. "The threat of a stalemate, the worst possible scenario, has emerged and clouds the future with uncertainty," bank UBM said in a note to clients.

In the lower house Chamber of Deputies Prodi‘s bloc had taken about 49.80 percent of the vote compared with 49.73 percent for Berlusconi. The winning margin was around 25,000 votes, a tiny fraction of the 47 million eligible electors. In the Senate, the Center-left was set to have a one or two seat majority, but definitive results were only expected later on Tuesday as the count of the overseas vote was completed.
Posted by: Steve   2006-04-11 08:40  

#2  Berlusconi has serious flaws, to say the least, but Prodi embodies everything that is wrong with Europe : socialist, eurabian (Tarik Ramadan was his personal adviser on islam, and IIUC, Bat Ye'or has very harsh words for him in her "Eurabia" book I've yet to receive), and fullforce tranzi.
Needless to say, here the MSM is in Berlu-bashing mode, and fully support Prodi, as he would certainly "bring back Italy into Europe" (read "into France & Germnay 's sphere of influence") and get italian troops out of Iraq.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-04-11 04:39  

#1  I'll be watching to see if the ground crews start fueling up Peanut One.
Posted by: Seafarious   2006-04-11 00:27  

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