With Italy’s general election just days away, Silvio Berlusconi is using his unrivalled media reach to focus the political debate on a single issue: his promise to repeal an unpopular property tax introduced by Mario Monti’s technocratic government.
After a 13-month spell under the technocratic government of Prime Minister Mario Monti, Italians return to the polls on Sunday with the centre-left coalition of Pier Luigi Bersani tipped to defeat Berlusconi’s People of Liberty (PDL) party and his Northern League allies.
A whirlwind tour of television sets has helped the “Cavaliere” reduce the gap in opinion polls from 17 percent a month ago to just four percent when the last surveys were published on February 8. The three-time former prime minister is now hoping a last flurry of televised appearances will help tip the scale in his favour.
In a country where elections are fought and won on television sets, Silvio Berlusconi is an unrivalled competitor – not least because he owns most of the channels.
“Berlusconi knows exactly how to set the agenda and control the political debate,” said Paolo Bellucci, a professor of contemporary politics at the University of Siena.
In this case, the political debate has been restricted to a single three-letter word: IMU, the reviled property tax introduced by Monti’s government (with, incidentally, the support of Berlusconi’s own party).
source:france24
Tags: Berlusconi, Italy
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