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http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id...

"But Mr Berlusconi, hungry for power, is baying for an election as soon as possible."

"It is the slowest-growing big economy in Europe; the south is barely moving forward at all. Spain has just overtaken Italy by the measure of GDP per head, say the statisticians. Italy's competitive sparkle has dimmed."

"In 2001 voters overwhelmingly backed Mr Berlusconi (rejecting this paper's view that his chequered business history made him unfit to lead Italy). But he squandered his opportunity, using up political capital to protect his media interests and fend off judicial cases against him, and dithering over economic reform. After a disastrous term, he left behind his own “poison pill”: a law to change Italy's electoral system back to one based largely on proportional representation."

"There is not a glimmer of hope that a returning Mr Berlusconi would prove a better bet than Mr Prodi. Judging by his record, he might be worse, starting by undoing the Prodi government's successful tax-collecting reforms. Mr Berlusconi has made clear that his first priority would again be to protect his own interests, by making it harder to use evidence from wiretapping in court cases. However successful he has been in business, he remains unfit for the job he covets. Poor Italy."