Exit polls yesterday said Italian voters have ousted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after an acrimonious election campaign, ending his flamboyant five-year reign and handing victory to a center-left coalition led by Romano Prodi.
"We're still very cautious, but if these indications are confirmed that would mean that Italy had decided to turn the page and begin a new era," said a spokesman at Prodi's campaign headquarters.
A Nexus poll for state broadcaster RAI gave Prodi's multi-party coalition -- which includes Communists as well as Catholics and liberals -- a majority in both houses of parliament.
It showed the center-left bloc had between 50 percent and 54 percent of the vote for both the lower Chamber of Deputies and upper house Senate against 45 percent to 49 percent to Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition.
The exit polls were released within minutes of the close of voting at 3pm after a two-day general election.
Senator Paolo Guzzanti of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party said: "Our coalition has lost the elections. We expected something like this because we've lost every [local] election since 2001."
Berlusconi made no immediate comment, although the exit polls forecast a collapse of the Forza Italia vote, giving it between 20 percent and 23 percent of the poll, as against the 29.4 percent it took when Berlusconi swept to power.
"The exit polls are unfavorable, but we are remaining very cautious," Forza Italia campaign analyst Denis Verdini said. "What's interesting for us is that the turnout figure is above 83 percent, which is very good for us. One vote could make all the difference in the Chamber of Deputies."
Prodi -- a 66-year-old economist who unseated Berlusconi in 1996 -- earlier said he was "confident, very confident," of maintaining his hex on the media magnate.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS