Berlusconi hit by four stinging Yes votes

Two weeks after his rout in the local elections, Italians have dealt Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his government another stinging rebuff. In the referendums of June 12-13, they went massively to the polls to repeal four laws supported by the government. These concern privatization of water utilities and the relaxation of fees; the reintroduction of nuclear power; and the granting of immunity from prosecution to highly-placed state officials, including Berlusconi. It's the first time in fifteen years that a referendum has drawn sufficient voters to be valid.

Il Cavaliere's leadership within his own camp is beginning to waver. Il Giornale, the daily owned by the Berlusconi family, maintains that “fear” after the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan was what "triumphed" at the polls, not discontent with Berlusconi, but the Italian press is otherwise unanimous in saying that the president is the main loser. According to La Repubblica:

The magic flute is broken. After twenty years, the Italians refuse to follow the Berlusconi piper. Four laws the government wanted were rejected by a landslide “yes” vote. It is a widespread and deliberate rebellion, which after the conservative’s defeat in the major cities [in last month’s ballot], accelerates the end of Berlusconism, now bogged down and devoid of all political energy.

The Corriere della Sera also sees this vote as the “twilight” of Berlusconi's “long season”.

Today, the decade of Il Cavaliere’s government is coming to a close. Berlusconi has governed since 2001 – eight of the past ten years. [Margaret] Thatcher held on for eleven years, Tony Blair for ten. Democratic voters are patient and tolerant but, every now and then, they stand up like giants and sweep away the past. The verdict of this electoral ‘Italian spring’ is so clear that it isn’t even necessary to discuss the causes. Because Berlusconi has no successor, the transition, for its part, will be neither orderly nor rapid.

For the moment, no one will reap the benefits of this “Italian Spring”, argues La Stampa:

The referendums were won by citizens who have a new faith in politics, but not in politicians. It's a mass movement, independent of political parties, which approves the decline of the two most powerful demagogues [Berlusconi and his Northern League ally, Umberto Bossi] of the past twenty years but which enthrones no one in their place, because it sees no one who is far enough away from ‘The Caste’ [the ruling socio-political elite] for its liking.