News: Berlusconi - Part III.

Last weekend, I wrote about Italian politics, as the first part of the series "Living in Italy", predicting ex-premier and current-billionaire politician Berlusconi would win. And he did.

Berlusconi's block takes 47% of the vote, compared with 38% for Mr Veltroni's centre-left, in both the Senate and the lower Chamber of Deputies. That translates into a 101-seat lead in the Chamber, and a 38-seat advantage in the Senate. (Full)

This means two things:
One- the political spectrum has shifted solidly to the right.
Secondly- last weekend's balloting wiped out the small parties. This might have been good as it eliminated the need for the governing party to make a fragile coalitions with several small parties. The latter haunted Italy's infamously unstable politics for 60 years as they had the power to make, break and paralyze the governing coalition.

I am saying "this might have been a good thing", as on one hand, a more solid step towards a two party deal, could bring more political stability. If only it was run by a "decent politician"..

Anyway. One thing caught my eye: In post-elections campaigning, Mr B announced "I will be in Naples three days a week" to solve the garbage crisis which left piles of stinking rubbish uncollected since December, due to incompetent governance and interests of the Comorra, the Mafia's local variant.
And today the Italian newspapers headlettered "Major Camorra sweep, 52 arrested" in Naples... A convenient coincidence?

Pictures courtesy CBC, Chris Warde-Jones, Bloomberg and Time magazine.