262. Milan: The End of the Berlusconian Era?

Duomo Milano
Attribution: Wikipedia

The long and the short of it all is that in Milan’s recent local elections Berlusconi’s coalition which proposed the present Mayor  Letizia Moratti (41%) for re-election fell behind by a whole 7 points from the left wing candidate Giuliano Pisapia (48%). But as neither gained 50% of the votes, we need to wait and see what happens at the ballot elections in 15 days. However, that is not all, Berlusconi who headed the coalition found himself with only half of the preferences he had in the previous local elections, and here we are talking of his home town, Milan.

A few weeks ago Silvio Berlusconi himself gave the first signs that perhaps the end is nigh by nominating Giulio  Tremonti, Minister of Finance (Chancellor of the Exchequer) as his possible successor, something never previously contemplated in the premier’s political history. 

The continuous interceptions of Berlusconi’s phone and private life and literally the wilful persecution from the Magistrates of Milan, the hammering of the major national TV political programmes and the pounding, mainly of erroneous and outrage reportage of the left wing press which is over half of the newspapers in Italy have taken their toll, added to which Berlusconi’s own excessive and not totally conservative behaviour have rubbed the Milanese up the wrong way.  

So be it. 

But Milan is the capital of Italy’s economic and commercial centre and if it has arrived at this it is thanks to a right-wing policy based on the principles of capitalism, even when the Socialist Bettino Craxi held the helm.  If suddenly overnight, we are going to change steer and have it run by a Mayor who has his roots in Communism and some say, extreme at that, will this primate that Milan now enjoys be turned upside down? 

Well, we all know that in politics the world is Topsy-Turvy, don’t we?