Conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was fighting for his political life yesterday in the face of a groundswell of support for his center-left opponent Romano Prodi as Italy began voting in a two-day election.
Prodi, dressed in a sober blue suit, cast his ballot at 10am with his wife Flavia in his home city of Bologna.
"I slept well very well last night and today it's sunny and people are voting calmly. I hope everything goes as steadily and as serenely as possible," said the former EU Commission president, who held a narrow but consistent lead in pre-election opinion polls.
Berlusconi, the first prime minister to take a government to its full term in Italy since World War II, was applauded by dozens of his supporters as he voted shortly after 1pm in his home city of Milan, accompanied by his 95-year-old mother, Rosa Bossi.
Intervention
A center-left election monitor at the polling station, however, intervened after overhearing the 69-year-old prime minister telling his frail mother how to vote.
"Put a cross on Forza Italia," Berlusconi said, indicating his own party.
"Listen, prime minister, you can't do that," the observer protested, according to the ANSA news agency.
"Not even with my mother?" an apparently incredulous Berlusconi said.
"You're really a mean-spirited Italy," he told the man, referring to the opposition Union grouping.
After casting his vote and posing for photographers, Berlusconi then thanked the staff of the polling station, before turning to the opposition monitor.
"Can I shake your hand now?" he said.
Polls will reopen for a second day of voting until 3pm today and first results are expected a few hours later.
Bright sunshine over most of Italy greeted voters as they flocked to 60,000 polling stations.
Leadership test
In Rome's Pigneto district, 50-year-old health worker Maria-Grazia Ingrosso said she wanted to "send Berlusconi home."
"For me nothing has changed, except that five years ago I could afford vacations, and now I have trouble making ends meet," she said.
Analysts say the poll is a referendum on Berlusconi's leadership. His bloc has come under fire in a vitriolic campaign which focused on Italy's dire economic performance, tax cuts and unemployment.
"I voted left to send Berlusconi packing," said Daniele Calente, a civil servant. "But I'm afraid his media bombardment might have made a difference, and all his lies."
In Milan, Berlusconi's appeal was unblemished for some.
"Berlusconi has done positive things for the family," said Monica Bell'oglio, a dental hygienist with two children in tow at a polling station. "And I think that as a business executive he has a spirit of initiative that is more appropriate for governing."
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