Summary

AP-APTN-0930: ++Italy Election Reax Tuesday, 31 May 2011 STORY:++Italy Election Reax- NEW Reax and analysis after PM suffers setback in local elex LENGTH: 02:30 FIRST RUN: 0930 RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only TYPE: Italian/Nat SOURCE: AP TELEVISION STORY NUMBER: 691074 DATELINE: Rome - 31 May 2011 LENGTH: 02:30 AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST 1. Wide of Parliament and Prime Minister's office 2. Changing of the guard in front of parliament 3. People at tables at Campo Dei Fiori market 4. Wide of news-stand 5. Close up of newspaper in hand of man 6. Tilt up of newspapers on stand 7. Close up of newspaper Libero with caricature of Berlusconi crying 8. Pan of headline of Corriere della Sera newspaper (Italian) "The centre-right loses in Milan and Naples" 9. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Mario Caruso, vox pop, Rome resident: "Italy is really on its knees, it is not that the alternative is so much better, but anything is better than Berlusconi." 10. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Antonio Di Guglielmi, vox pop, Rome resident: "He is a fighter, he will go on as long he has the majority, as long as he thinks he can hold this government together." 11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Professor James Walston, political analyst: "Berlusconi has to consolidate his alliance, his coalition has been greatly weakened, his party and the Northern League have already started fighting among each other and he has to maintain the coalition, he says, for the next two years, I somehow doubt it." 12. Campo Dei Fiori market STORYLINE Analysts and local residents reacted on Tuesday to the stunning electoral defeats suffered by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party in his political stronghold of Milan and in the southern city of Naples. Final results from the runoff elections held on Monday and Sunday appeared to support recent opinion polls that have shown his popularity slipping as he faces a trial in Milan in a prostitution scandal. Critics have said most of his energy has been involved defending himself from charges that he paid for sex with an underage Moroccan teenager then used the premier's office to try to cover it up. In Rome on Tuesday one local resident called Berlusconi a "fighter" who would go on as long as he could, while others said they were desperate for change. "Italy is really on its knees, it is not that the alternative is so much better, but anything is better than Berlusconi," said Mario Caruso. In Milan, Berlusconi's candidate, Mayor Letizia Moratti, won about 45 percent of the vote in the runoff against Giuliano Pisapia of the centre-left. Milan, Italy's financial and fashion capital and Berlusconi's own power base, had been run by conservative mayors for almost two decades. The city also is a crucial power base of a key government ally, the Northern League, and the poor showing is likely to deepen rifts between Berlusconi and the League's leader, Umberto Bossi. The League had been critical of the electoral campaign in Milan and lukewarm toward Moratti and it will no doubt be angry about having lost northern Italy's most important city. In the Naples run-off, the leftist candidate Luigi de Magistris, a former magistrate, won by a landslide with 65 percent of the vote, compared to 35 percent for Berlusconi's candidate, Gianni Lettieri, according to the final returns. Berlusconi had campaigned hard ahead of the local elections and urged Italians to go to the polls to signal their support for his conservative coalition government in Rome. The votes mark a setback for the 74-year-old Berlusconi personally and for his local candidates, analysts say, and will likely raise questions about his leadership. "His coalition has been greatly weakened, his party and the Northern League have already started fighting among each other and he has to maintain the coalition, he says, for the next two years, I somehow doubt it," said political analyst Professor James Walston. Berlusconi went on trial in April on charges that he paid for sex with an underage Moroccan prostitute and tried to cover it up by using his influence. The trial continues on Tuesday. The latest ballots were his first electoral test since the trial opened. Another three court cases, all related to his business, are under way in Milan. He has denied all the charges. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 05-31-11 0549EDT