REGIONAL ELECTIONS: CENTRE-LEFT 12, CENTRE-RIGHT 2
(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Apr. 18 - Provided preliminary polls are confirmed Basilicata will be won by the centre-left "Unione" coalition, raising the centre-left regional win tally up to 12 out of a total of 14 regions available. The centre-right will merely control Lombardy and Veneto. The centre-left coalition has swung regions such as Piedmont, Liguria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Puglia and Calabria. The centre-right has failed to claim any regions under prior centre-left mandate. (AGI) -
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200504181846-1217-RT1-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-e
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http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=413872005
Berlusconi pledges to fight on
SILVIO Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, was attempting to save his government from collapse last night amid rumours he was about to resign after losing the support of key coalition partners.
The Italian premier spent much of the day in talks with the Union of Christian Democrats (UDC) party, which announced it was withdrawing from the coalition on Friday.
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A poll published in the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Sunday gave the centre-left opposition, headed by Romano Prodi, the former European Commission president, a lead of 5 per cent over the government.
A fresh sign of the mountain Mr Berlusconi has to climb was provided by voters in the small southern region of Basilicata in a regional election held on Sunday and yesterday, two weeks after he lost 11 of 13 regions that went to the polls around the country.
Exit polls indicated that the centre-left had won Basilicata with some 70 per cent of the vote, increasing its majority and taking the overall tally of regions to 12-2 in the centre-left's favour.