LetsTravelRome

Italy PM 'needs five more years'

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said he needs another five years to bring Italy from the Middle Ages into the modern world. Mr Berlusconi was addressing a crowd of about 2,000 supporters of his Forza Italia party in Rome.

It was his last election rally in the Italian capital before this weekend's general elections.

He appealed to student and pensioner voters, and stressed his party's commitment to upholding family values.

Speaking to the converted, and with no time restraints for his final public address in Rome, Mr Berlusconi offered something for everyone if he is re-elected this weekend.

He promised at his first cabinet meeting to cancel a much-criticised local property tax which all house owners have to pay.

Mr Berlusconi, confidently grasping his lectern, then went on to make promises to students, offering them tax breaks if they wanted to become enterprising businessmen like himself.

He appealed to pensioners who would, he said, enjoy free train and bus travel, free entrance to cinemas and theatres and also get a free licence to watch television if he is returned to office at the weekend.

The Italian prime minister then took the moral high ground and called upon this predominantly Catholic country to vote for him, not his leftist opponents as he, unlike them, he said, would uphold family values.

The Vatican has remained on the sidelines in this election campaign, but neither the centre right nor the centre left can be said to have a monopoly of the Catholic vote.

Earlier Mr Berlusconi had been rapped on the knuckles by the watchdog authority which is attempting to limit Mr Berlusconi's air time on the commercial television channels which he owns.

He withdrew from a planned television appearance later on Wednesday.

Lets-Travel-Rome.com

posted by Les Sheppard @ 10:11 AM