Italian election turns presidential

Clash of personalities: frontrunner Silvio Berlusconi

By Robin Oakley, CNN Europe Political Editor

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Italian elections, now well into their final week, have become a choice much more between personalities than between policies.

Silvio Berlusconi, leader of Forza Italia and of the centre-right House of Liberties coalition, has advanced by presenting himself as a strong man, the multi-millionaire businessman who could use his commercial skills to the advantage of the Italian economy.

He was briefly prime minister before, for a few months in 1994.

Francesco Rutelli, the former Mayor of Rome who heads the Olive Tree coalition of the centre-left, has had to rely more on his acknowledged personal charm and popularity.

He is handicapped by the comparative incoherence of the splintered forces of the left, who have been in government in recent years and he has spent more time attacking Berlusconi than in promoting his own programme.

Opinion polls are banned in the final stages of the Italian campaign but the signs are that Rutelli has made some progress in whittling away Berlusconi’s lead in the last published polls.

What remains uncertain is the effect of a barrage of foreign media criticism of Berlusconi over his legal entanglements on charges or allegations of corruption, false accounting, bribery and Mafia associations.

Italians have in the past shrugged their shoulders over the problems, which Berlusconi dismisses as the machinations of left wing magistrates and media figures. They may do so even more now, resenting overseas intervention in their election.

But Rutelli has declared: “If Berlusconi wins, it will spell political isolation for Italy throughout the continent.”

Left-wing candidate Francesco Rutelli has closed the gap in the latest opinion polls

As in most political contests, the economy has been a key issue. Both major coalitions are promising more privatisation, more investment in new technology and special attention to the economic problems of southern Italy.

Rutelli is a man at home with modern technology, but has limited achievements to point to from his period as Mayor of Rome.

Berlusconi has won plaudits from the business community for his readiness to sweep away a wide swathe of Italian laws and to reform the tax structure. He has promised to modernise public administration and has pledged a programme of infrastructure projects, including a new motorway from Florence to Bologna.

Berlusconi has set out five pledges to the electorate including reduced taxes, higher pensions and the creation of 1.5 million jobs. He signed the document on live television declaring: “It’s a cheque which will have to be paid, or it’s off home for me."

Controversy has been supplied by Umberto Bossi, a Berlusconi ally and leader of the Northern League. With law and order a big issue, has been accused of xenophobia for the way in which he has played up connections between crime and illegal immigration.

Bossi has talked of immigrants carrying “cultural baggage which no one can confiscate at the border."

Although Berlusconi presents himself as a willing co-operator with the EU, Bossi is more sceptical, calling the EU “the Soviet Union of the West.” Bossi has been criticised by members of the German government as a likely barrier to greater European co-operation.

Rutelli has said he finds “interesting” the new integrationist ideas put forward by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for increased powers for the European Commission and Parliament.

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Francesco Rutelli 2001
Silvio Berlusconi 2001

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