Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition is making rapid gains ahead of next month’s elections, the latest polls suggest, increasing the possibility that even if the centre-left wins as expected it may not be able to form a stable Italian government.
A poll by the Emg agency for television station La7 showed centre-left’s lead over the centre-right shrinking by 5.5 points from a month earlier to 9.5 points, La7 director Enrico Mentana said on Monday.
It was Emg’s first poll since a spirited performance by Berlusconi on a critic’s talk show on Thursday attracted a record nine million viewers and huge media coverage in the following days.
Berlusconi’s staff cited another poll, by the Euromedia agency, which put the gap between him and the centre-left bloc led by Pier Luigi Bersani at just 4.5 points.
Berlusconi commissions weekly polls from Euromedia, which he has used for several years.
The group does not publish their surveys but its director Alessandra Ghisleri confirmed the latest results to Reuters.
She said the poll was conducted on Friday and Saturday and showed the 76-year-old had received a strong boost of between two and three percentage points from his three-hour tele-vision appearance.
“There is no doubt that there is much more potential for Berlusconi to increase his support among right-leaning voters than there is for Bersani on the centre-left, whose support seems to have peaked.”
The centre-left bloc still has a commanding lead according to most other surveys, and the prospect of Berlusconi completely closing the gap before the February 24-25 vote remains unlikely.
Berlusconi’s past legal troubles could also still return to damage his campaign. After the polls were conducted, judges in Milan on Monday rejected the former Prime Minister’s request to halt his sex trial until after the election. Monday’s hearing which also included an appearance from the nightclub dancer at the centre of the case – revived memories of the “Bunga Bunga” sex scandal that hung over Berlusconi’s last months in office before he resigned in 2011. He denies charges of paying for sex with a minor.
As Berlusconi gained in polls, outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti made his most scathing attack yet against the media tycoon, calling him a “Pied Piper” who had already tricked Italians three times with unrealistic promises to slash taxes.