ITALY: On the eve of Italy's general election, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his centre-left rival Romano Prodi both did it their way when it came to winding up their election campaigns yesterday.
Under Italian law, no campaigning is allowed during the final 24 hours prior to the vote, with the electorate being encouraged to take a moment out for "reflection" prior to casting their vote tomorrow and on Monday.
Most opinion polls suggest that Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition is trailing the centre-left by anything from three to five points. Perhaps with that in mind, the prime minister produced an early Easter egg from his electoral hat when saying in a TV interview that he would abolish garbage taxes if elected.
Just four days ago, at the end of a televised debate with Mr Prodi, he had sprung a similar surprise promise, offering to abolish an unpopular tax on property.
Predictably, his centre-left opponents were not much impressed: "This daily obsession with announcing the abolition of this or that tax is frankly ridiculous. He thinks he can simply buy people's votes," commented Piero Fassino, leader of Democratic Left, the largest party in Mr Prodi's wide-ranging coalition.
While Mr Berlusconi tried to tempt the electorate with more promises, Mr Prodi spoke of Italy's "desperate need for unity" at his final election rally in Rome's Piazza del Popolo. In an obvious reference to both Mr Berlusconi's electoral promises and to the accusation that the media tycoon has governed Italy for the last five years in his own best interests rather in the interests of the Italian people, Mr Prodi said: "To Italians, to those disillusioned with the right, even to those who opt not vote at all, I say that ours will be a government for all Italy and all Italians. I've made only one promise - to win this election and then to govern for the good of all Italy." Throughout the campaign, Mr Prodi has doggedly insisted on the need for a second national "unification", a new renaissance to get Italy out of its current cultural, political and economic crisis.
As the Ulivo (Olive Tree) flags waved amongst the 5,000 strong crowd in the evening sunshine, the former European Commission president repeated that message arguing that Mr Berlusconi's government had "lacerated and divided" Italy: "We know how to govern, only through dialogue.We now need to pull together to create the biggest economic revival in this country since World War Two", he said.
If Mr Prodi could see out into the crowd in front of him, he might have noticed one large poster featuring the front page of the current edition of news weekly, The Economist. Alongside a cover picture of Mr Berlusconi stands the Italian word "Basta" (Enough) with a subtitle reading, "Time for Italy to sack Berlusconi".
Asked about The Economist's cover and about other negative criticism aimed at him in the international press, Mr Berlusconi commented yesterday: "It's in their (foreigners) interest to keep Italy weak, all those foreign businesses have every advantage going and they're afraid that Italy might take off."
He also warned yesterday of possible electoral fraud at this weekend's elections, prompting Mr Prodi to comment: "The idea that Berlusconi, the prime minister whose government controls the entire electoral process should speculate about electoral fraud is something that simply should not happen. For my part, I say that Italians both want and need to change, and they can do so in the most beautiful and democratic manner possible with a pencil and a ballot sheet."