Voters Batter Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, rebuffed calls for his resignation yesterday after a stinging defeat in regional elections, a sign that voters may be preparing to get rid of him in the general election next year.

The centre-left coalition won 11 of the 13 regions at stake, and Mr Berlusconi's House of Liberties alliance kept two, its northern strongholds Lombardy and Veneto.

Francesco Storace, defeated president of the politically important Lazio region, described the result as a "slaughter" for the centre-right.

Late last night Mr Berlusconi made an impromptu appearance on a state television talk show and held his first TV debate with the opposition.

He said he would not resign, though he acknowledged that the election results were "heavy" and said his decision not to campaign in the regional elections and "remain the premier of all Italians" had been an error.

Earlier in the day he had blamed the defeat on the difficult economic times and the price increases which followed the introduction of the euro.

"I am serene. I know I have governed in the best way possible," he said in an interview with the Italian weekly Panorama, which will be published later this week.

His rival Romano Prodi worked tenaciously to woo the far-left Communist Refoundation party, and Mr Berlusconi failed to seal an electoral pact with his former allies in the Radical party and the breakaway rightwing group founded by Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the wartime dictator.

The moderate Turin daily La Stampa said the centre-right had "approached the elections divided, quarrelsome, torn by rivalries and personal frustrations, just as its opponents had done at the last regional election in 2000. The result was the same: defeat."

The left-leaning La Repubblica went further: "It's more than a defeat, it's a collapse."

Corriere della Serra, Italy's biggest paper, also said it was a defeat, one "so burning that it cannot be played down".

Mr Prodi, a former president of the European commission, welcomed the result as a clear invitation to his coalition "to prepare to govern, to take the country forward".