The Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered one of the worst setbacks of his political career yesterday when he was badly defeated in local elections, including in his provincial stronghold around Milan.
In two rounds of elections his centre-Right coalition, which swept to national power three years ago with the largest majority in post-war history, lost 52 out of 63 provincial council contests. The centre-Right also lost 22 out of 30 mayoral races.
Critics said the defeats, coming three weeks after similar humiliations in European elections, signalled the beginning of the end for the media tycoon-turned-politician's political empire.
Both results are being seen as emblematic of growing national dissent over the prime minister's showy style of politics, known as Berlusconismo.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/29/wberl29.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/06/29/ixportal.html
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