Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced a fresh blow on Monday following last month’s heavy defeat in local elections as Italians turned out in large numbers to vote in referendums the government had done its best to block.
Voting on the four questions on nuclear power, water privatisation and trial immunity for government ministers, ends at 1300 GMT but high turnout on Sunday’s first day pointed to a damaging new defeat for the struggling centre-right government.
Berlusconi himself appeared to concede defeat at least in the nuclear referendum when he told a news conference the vote had probably ended prospects for atomic energy in Italy. “Following the decision the Italian people are taking at this moment, we must probably say goodbye to the possibility of nuclear power stations and we must strongly commit ourselves to renewable energy,” he said. Berlusconi had opposed the proposals to repeal laws passed by his government. He said last week that he would not vote and he had hoped most people would stay away, robbing the motions of the 50 percent quorum they need to pass. The vote could not have come at a worse time for the 74- year-old premier, who faces a sex scandal and three fraud trials and who was weakened by crushing losses in last month’s local elections, including in his northern power base, Milan.
The centre-left opposition campaigned hard to get voters to the polling stations and with a turnout of over 41 percent by Sunday night, were confident the quorum would be reached. “Many will see this as a big victory for the opposition, a new shove to the government,” Turin daily La Stampa said in an editorial. “But the real victory is a different one and a big one — a renewed desire for participation by citizens.”
