Berlusconi government by May 10

Italy's new government will be up and running within two weeks, Premier-elect Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday.

London and Rome City Mayors

As London decides on Thursday if it red Ken or Boris the joker, in Rome they vote on Sunday, the two rivals in the run-off ballot are the centre-left's Francesco Rutelli, Italy's outgoing culture minister and former Rome mayor, and the centre-right's Giovanni Alemanno, an ex-agriculture minister who is hoping to take Rome to the Right for the first time since the war.

Berlusconi 3rd time lucky ?

Tutti,

Berlusconi returns for the 3rd time after this weekends general elections with a convincing victory over Veltroni's centrre left Democratic Party. His "Freedom Folk" party saw a large backing for the extreme right, Northern league....does Bossi never give up.

Berlusconi is renouned for his politically sensitive bluffs (remember the nazi reference to the german chancellor) and the way his previous government let Italy's public finances run out of control, threating the stability of the Euro, (bet their not happy in Brussels today).

With Spain's economy according to the EU stronger than Italy's Berlusconi has a difficult task to maintain his manifesto claims...tax cuts, boost infrastructure, save Alitalia and clean up Naples.

In bocca al lupo.