Comedy of errors in Berlusconi election run-up
Party misses deadline to register candidates in Rome
A political comedy of errors has hurt Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition less than a month before key regional elections, in the latest headache for a man already weighed down by a string of scandals.
In a fiasco that Italian newspapers said left Mr Berlusconi fuming at his aides, his People of Freedom (PDL) coalition missed the deadline for registering candidates in Rome province for key regional elections seen as a test of national strength.
Rome province, the largest in the Lazio region of which Rome is capital, has more than two million voters. Thirteen of Italy's 20 regions will vote on March 28-29. While not the largest or richest region up for grabs, Lazio is perhaps the most symbolic as it is the seat of the national government.
Losing it would be a major embarrassment for Mr Berlusconi, who was shaken last month by a high-profile corruption scandal concerning the head of the civil protection agency, a close aide. Mr Berlusconi also faces two trials, for tax fraud and for bribery.
Lazio had been considered an easy win for Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition because the region's ex-governor, Piero Marazzo, a leftist, resigned after a sex and drugs scandal. But the weekend's events have destroyed that certainty.
"The image that emerges from this is that of a coalition in a mess," Massimo Franco, commentator for the leading Corriere della Sera, wrote yesterday.
An opinion poll published last month showed Mr Berlusconi's approval rating slipping to 46 per cent after remaining at or above 50 per cent for long periods. The new developments were certainly not good news coming four weeks before the elections.
Mr Berlusconi's coalition said the deadline was missed because its representative was distracted outside the electoral office on Saturday by an argument with a member of another party. But media reports and irate centre-right bloggers spoke of bungling and incompetence in the party, which commentators said could only hurt Mr Berlusconi's image. The representative not only arrived at the last minute but did not have all the proper documents with him. Some reports said the deadline was missed because of internal bickering about names of candidates for regional councillors.
The bloggers warned that the fiasco could mean disaster for the party in Lazio, where Mr Berlusconi's candidate for governor, right-wing trade unionist Renata Polverini, is running against the popular former EU commissioner Emma Bonino.