Saturday, April 29, 2006
Berlusconi finally gives up the ghost
A short nineteen days after the election, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi conceded defeat.
Berlusconi had shouted about corruption and vote fraud, but in the end he decided to move on from the Prime Minister's office.
His successor, Romano Prodi, has been meeting tough opposition getting his candidates for government offices into place. This stiff resistance, combined with an outgoing official's statement that "Our objective is to bring it (the government) down as soon as possible" doesn't bode well for the stability of Italy's power structure over the coming year.
Italy has had a history of political instability since WWII, but that had appeared to level off in the past few years. Gven the narrow margin of the '06 election, we may see a period of tightly contested races leading to a series of short-lived administrations.
Berlusconi had shouted about corruption and vote fraud, but in the end he decided to move on from the Prime Minister's office.
His successor, Romano Prodi, has been meeting tough opposition getting his candidates for government offices into place. This stiff resistance, combined with an outgoing official's statement that "Our objective is to bring it (the government) down as soon as possible" doesn't bode well for the stability of Italy's power structure over the coming year.
Italy has had a history of political instability since WWII, but that had appeared to level off in the past few years. Gven the narrow margin of the '06 election, we may see a period of tightly contested races leading to a series of short-lived administrations.
Silvio Berlusconi | Italian Elections
# posted @ 1:56 PM 
