In italia non traspare, ma nel resto del mondo non l’hanno presa proprio benissimissimo la vittoria di Silvio:

Berlusconi Snatches Back Power in Italy

ROME — Silvio Berlusconi, the idiosyncratic billionaire who already dominates much of Italy’s public life, snatched back political power in elections that ended Monday, heading a center-right coalition certain to make him prime minister for a third term.

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Italians chose in a moment of national self-doubt a man whose dramas — the clowning and corruption scandals, his rocky relations with his wife and political partners, his growing hairline and ever browner hair — play out very much in public.

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Berlusconi wins Italian election

Economic growth is expected by the International Monetary Fund to slow to 0.3 percent this year and Italy’s debt is the third highest in the world.

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In Italy, crime pays and may get you elected
Voters’ ballot choices this weekend read like a laundry list of what ails the country.

ROME — When they vote this weekend, Italians can choose among any number of convicted felons or the odd TV go-go dancer on the ballot. Not to mention the personal friends, relatives and, in one case, the physical therapist of party leaders putting together potential governments. Crime does not disqualify you from running for office in this country, nor are qualifications necessarily necessary.

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A beautiful, romantic country of olive-dappled landscapes and cobblestoned piazzas famed for its food, fashion and bella figura, Italy is today a land awash in corruption, economic decay, political ennui, rampant impunity and a fast-declining standard of living. Inflation is among the highest in Western Europe, growth the lowest. Record numbers of people report feeling poorer than ever.

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Berlusconi heads a slate that includes his physiotherapist and an unrepentant Fascist, as well as several center-right women who Berlusconi said this week were “surely prettier” than leftist women. Among them is one of the voluptuous dancers normally featured in skimpy clothing on his television networks.

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* Italian Parliament members last year had the highest salaries in Europe (more than 50% higher than their British, German and French counterparts).

* It costs more to run the Italian Parliament than any other in Europe — 10 times as much as Spain’s. In the last legislature, 16 lawmakers were convicted felons (and continued in office), and an additional 10 or so were facing criminal charges.

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It’s advantage Berlusconi in Italy

Italian society appears to have reached such a nadir of cynicism, corruption and fatalism that voters seem prepared to put the country’s richest man back in office.

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Italy’s richest man, media tycoon and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, now 72, but looking unnaturally young and stretched with a new facelift and hair transplant, is tipped to make a comeback. He and Gianfranco Fini, who inherited the former Fascist party, Allianza Nationale, have now merged to form a new party on the right — the PDL or People’s Party for Freedom. His party has also the support of the xenophobic and anti-European Northern League led by the unkempt and chain-smoking Umberto Bossi. Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Italy’s wartime fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, and her Alternativo Sociale or AS party, have also thrown their weight behind Mr. Berlusconi. The latest polls show that Mr. Berlusconi has a comfortable lead of about six points over his closest rival Walter Veltroni of the Democratic Party (PD).

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Remaining true to his image of a crude gaffer, Mr. Berlusconi has continued to make remarks that many find unpalatable, even offensive. Recently he called on foreign investors to come to Italy because the country had “beautiful secretaries.”

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