This is the second time the billionaire businessman has been prime minister. In 1994 he was elected under the short-lived rightist Freedom Alliance coalition, which included his party, Forza Italia (Let's Go Italy), and two fascist-oriented outfits, the National Alliance Party, led by Gianfranco Fini, and the Northern League headed by Umberto Bossi. That government collapsed seven months after it came to power when Bossi pulled out of the coalition amidst charges of corruption against Berlusconi.

The House of Liberties coalition also includes the extreme right-wing party Fiamma Tricolore, that along with National Alliance traces its origins to the Italian Socialist Party, a direct descendant of Mussolini's fascist party.

The Northern League maintains that the northern Italian region should separate from the rest of the country. They demagogically accuse Rome of being a tax eater and a bureaucracy that steals from the rich in the north to give to the poor in the south.

The League also promotes a scapegoating campaign against immigrants, Muslims, and homosexuals, putting forward among other things the building of a wall along the Italian border with Slovenia to keep all immigrants out.

In an International Herald Tribune article by Roy Denman, former representative of the European Commission in Washington, Bossi is quoted denouncing the current center-left government for "seeking destruction of the family and the West, while supporting immigration and showing complacency for homosexuals."

Among other reactionary and pro–big business proposals in his campaign, Berlusconi pledged to toughen Italy's immigration system, allowing only immigrants with a job to remain in the country and creating a fingerprint data bank to identify illegal immigrants. He also campaigned around themes of cutting taxes, reforming the federal bureaucracy, and carrying out a public works program.

Berlusconi owns the country's three largest private television networks, and is reportedly worth $12 billion, making him one of the richest people in Italy.

Leading up to the vote some prominent figures in the European Union had threatened to impose sanctions similar to those used against Austria last year, when Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel brought Jörg Haider's fascist Freedom Party into his coalition government. But after the May 13 elections, bourgeois ruling circles in Europe changed their tone around a government headed by the media magnate. Berlusconi's overwhelming victory and the low vote for the fascist parties means he can form a government without either the Northern League or the National Alliance parties.

Margaret Thatcher, the former United Kingdom prime minister, wrote a letter praising Berlusconi on the eve of the elections, saying his proposals were similar to those she had pursued in the 1980s. "It is those on the center-right of politics, like Mr. Berlusconi, who still seek to strengthen and deepen freedom," she said.  
 
 
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