Italian voters are not going to be overly impressed by television footage of Berlusconi with George Bush. The overriding issue in these elections is the economy. In 2001, Italians voted for Berlusconi because he promised...

He still has an admirable ability to interpret the country.

The prime minister has decided to contest the result and to use a ‘mutilated victory’ as a long-term weapon.

The era of Berlusconi seen as a wizard who would solve the country’s problems with a magic wand is over. But Berlusconi as the symbol of a social bloc, of interests and fears of the...

Bush knows that Berlusconi will lose, and is giving him a farewell party. This new legislature may be stillborn, and we may be in for a period of political instability.