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/ 11 April 2008

Berlusconi pleads for big election majority

Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday appealed to Italian voters to give him a huge majority at the general election on Sunday and Monday. He said that ”to really govern” he needed a margin of at least 20 seats in the Senate, the Upper House of the Italian Parliament. That would allow him ”to take, if necessary, difficult and unpopular decisions”.

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/ 26 September 2007

A red lesson from Italy

Tear gas billowed down the street every day as rioters battled police. Enraged protesters believed that even the Communist Party had turned its back on them. One evening, amid the debris of street barricades, I spotted two party officials — famed for their underground resistance — pleading with a group of rioters to renounce violent protest. This was in Rome exactly 30 years ago.