Opinion | Editorials
Berlusconi rises again for the third time
Italy's former premier is back, but without the optimism of his two periods in office.
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:17 April 16, 2008
Like the old political campaigner he is, Silvio Berlusconi keeps coming back long after his opponents have written him off. For the third time in 18 years he has become prime minister of Italy.
In 1994 he rode a wave of a populist protest against the complacency at the heart of the Italian system but lasted less than eight months.
In 2001 he won again, this time campaigning as the man who could solve Italy's deepening economic problems but after five years his opponents thought he had left the political battlefield.
Now he is back again but without any of the optimism that marked his first two periods in office. Oppositions don't win elections, governments lose them, is an old maxim and sums up the recent Italian election.
But despite his parliamentary majority stability is not guaranteed. Italy has had more than 60 governments since 1945 and Berlusconi's rightwing coalition has, within its ranks, parties that earlier had voted against him.
Indeed the biggest gainer among the smaller parties is the anti-immigrant separatist Northern League, on which Berlusconi will have to rely for his majority, but which brought him down in 1995 and may do so again.
Italy has some serious economic problems not unlike many countries facing the credit crunch and stock market volatility. It could be that a more experienced Berlusconi has a determination to succeed this time that was missing from his previous two administrations to get the economy functioning more efficiently. Berlusconi cannot let his government drift the way previous administrations of his have done but the omens are not good.
It is quite possible that Italy's new 62nd postwar government will rapidly be followed by its 63rd and then by more horse trading with smaller parties getting ever bigger roles while the big issues remain untackled.
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