Berlusconi gets a slap in the face

The second round of local elections were a crushing blow to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his supporters. The press is unanimous in noting the extent of the debacle. “The slap in the face has become a rout,” sums up Milan daily Corriere della Sera. The centre-right’s defeat in the first round was clearly confirmed in the second, it says. The ruling Berlusconi-led coalition lost Milan – for the first time in 18 years. It lost in Naples, which it was unable to wrench from a left discredited by its disastrous management of the city’s rubbish crisis, and it lost in most of the provinces and small urban areas. The centre-left even won in Arcore, where Il Cavaliere has his primary residence. The magnitude of the defeat is such that [Corriere concludes](http:// http://www.corriere.it/editoriali/11_maggio_31/franco-elezioni-berlusconi-bossi_1d82829e-8b45-11e0-93d0-5db6d859c804.shtml) that within the coalition “the idea of a new head of government is gaining ground. The post-Berlusconi era has begun”.

“Urban Italy sent a clear message to Berlusconi; the magic spell is broken, the country wants to turn the page,” according to opposition daily [La Repubblica](http:// http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2011/05/31/news/editoriale_elezioni-16994886/?ref=HREA-1), which argues that the defeat must also be attributed to Berlusconi’s virulent electoral campaign. “The man who used to have the sun in his pocket didn’t notice that he projected a troubling and ominous image of Italy and that the voters judged it pretentious, negative and false,” the Roman daily says.

This analysis is shared by Turin's La Stampa. “Berlusconi is out of touch with the majority of Italians, with the guts of the country. In times of crisis, of trouble, of eroding savings and of jobless youth, it’s hard to believe that reform of the justice system [a major Berlusconi campaign theme] speaks to the heart and fills the ballot box,” the paper concludes.