Italians go to the polls today

Published April 9, 2006

ROME, April 8: Italians got a break from bitter political rhetoric on Saturday, a day before general elections and at the end of a divisive race that was largely consumed by mudslinging. “Finally it’s over, we vote,” headlined moderate daily La Stampa. Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his centre-left rival, Romano Prodi, wrapped up their campaigns on Friday.

“The insistence with which we have asked Prodi and Berlusconi to tell us of their platforms and of how they would face the country’s problems has been wasted breath,” wrote top commentator Sergio Romano in leading daily Corriere della Sera.—AP

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