Tuesday 22 / July / 2025
Palermo (Italy): Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi looked on course for a stunning political comeback on Monday, as projections showed him and his rightist allies winning a regional election in Sicily.
Berlusconi's centre-right bloc was running just ahead of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, with the centre-left a distant third, according to the initial projections.
Berlusconi had been written off as a has-been after years of sex scandals and graft allegations but, if confirmed, the result would put his broad alliance in pole position to win a national election due by next May.
By contrast, the vote seemed certain to deal a stinging blow to another former prime minister, Matteo Renzi, head of the ruling Democratic Party (PD), which is locked in feuding with erstwhile leftist partners.
Sunday's Sicilian ballot has come under scrutiny because it is seen as a dry run for the forthcoming parliamentary ballot, with many of the Mediterranean island's problems reflecting those of the country as a whole -- high unemployment, a large debt mountain and sluggish economic growth.
RAI state television said the centre-right's candidate for Sicily governor, Nello Musumeci, looked to have won 38 per cent of the vote, while the 5-Star's candidate Giancarlo Cancelleri was seen on 36 per cent.
The maverick 5-Star, founded by comedian Beppe Grillo, had campaigned relentlessly for months in Sicily, looking to take charge of its first region after a string of successes in municipal ballots in recent years, including in Rome and Turin.
Although defeat would be a blow, the 5-Star will be able to take comfort from the fact that it the largest single political force, taking at least 30 percent of a separate vote on Sicily for party lists against less than 15 per cent for its nearest rival -- Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy!)
The billionaire media tycoon was seen as a spent force after he was expelled from public office following a tax fraud conviction in 2013, but he returned to the political fray after open heart surgery last year and campaigned actively in Sicily.
His allies -- the far right Brothers of Italy and Northern League -- also performed strongly. Both parties ran campaigns virulently condemning a recent influx of migrants, suggesting this will be a dominant theme in the national election.
The centre-left government has moved this year to shut down the flow of migrants from Libya after more than 600,000, mainly Africans, reached Italy over the past four years.
The issue has dented support for the centre-left, which has further damaged itself by falling pray to ferocious schisms.
The centre-left's candidate in Sicily looked on course to win around 17.5 per cent of the vote, while a leftist rival was set to take 7.5 per cent. The two groups stood together when they won the last regional ballot on the island in 2012.
Turnout in the election was just 46.8 per cent -- a record low for Sicily, showing a continued erosion of interest in politics in Italy following years of economic downturn.
Although latest opinion polls suggest the centre-right will win next year's national vote, a recent change to the electoral law suggests that no one bloc will win an absolute majority of seats suggesting possible political gridlock.
Investors are worried that the 5-Star might win control of the country. The party bases its appeal mainly on a campaign against corruption and vested interests in Italy, but it has pulled back from a pledge to hold a referendum on continued membership of the euro.
Markets were little changed on Monday.
