ROME, May 7 (Reuters) – A maverick comic who wants Italy to
quit the euro made big gains in local elections on Monday while
former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party lost heavily as
voters joined a wave of anti-austerity anger across Europe and
punished incumbent parties.

The results, following the victory of French Socialist
Francois Hollande and major losses for traditional big parties
in Greece on Sunday, will add to pressure for European leaders
to ease measures adopted to counter the financial crisis.

MADRID/ROME (Reuters) – The election of Francois Hollande in France gives the leaders of struggling southern European countries a new ally in their effort to temper the German-led drive for rigid austerity that has exacerbated their economic woes.

Socialist Hollande’s victory breaks up the centre-right tandem of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel, whose European fiscal pact demanded deep spending cuts in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

ROME (Reuters) – Italians went to the polls in local elections on Sunday that will provide the first concrete test of voter resistance to Prime Minister Mario Monti’s increasingly unpopular austerity policies since he came to office last year.

Monti himself is not in the race but for the two main parties which support his technocrat government in parliament, the vote will also be the most significant barometer of support ahead of national elections next year.

ACERRA, Italy (Reuters) – Acerra, in southern Italy, has long suffered abnormally high rates of cancer, apparently linked to the illegal waste dumps that dot the surrounding countryside, and something of their toxic effect has seeped into political life as well.

Campaigning for local elections on Sunday and Monday has been marked by a series of incidents that have highlighted the pervasive corruption hindering efforts to clean up the system in the sprawling Campania region around Naples.

ACERRA, Italy (Reuters) – Acerra, in southern Italy, has long suffered abnormally high rates of cancer, apparently linked to the illegal waste dumps that dot the surrounding countryside, and something of their toxic effect has seeped into political life as well.

Campaigning for local elections on Sunday and Monday has been marked by a series of incidents that have highlighted the pervasive corruption hindering efforts to clean up the system in the sprawling Campania region around Naples.

ROME (Reuters) – Italians’ suspicion of their politicians is rarely far from the surface, and a spate of scandals has further hurt the credibility of the main parties just before their first voter test since the downfall of Silvio Berlusconi.

Local elections on Sunday and Monday look set to confirm a growing pattern of disillusion. They will provide the first test for the increasingly unpopular austerity measures of technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti since he took over in November, and will set the tone ahead of national elections next year.

ROME, April 24 (Reuters) – The Italian Senate gave final
approval on Tuesday to a decree ordering the auction of digital
television frequencies, a measure that had been strongly opposed
by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The decree has been closely watched by the television
industry since the government indicated it would scrap plans to
give away the frequencies in a process that had been widely
criticised for favouring Berlusconi’s Mediaset empire.

ROME (Reuters) – The Moroccan-born nightclub dancer at the centre of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s sex trial told friends he was ready to pay millions for her silence, according to wiretaps published on Monday.

“He’s crazy. He’s crazy for me at the moment,” Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name of Ruby, told a friend in a conversation recorded by investigators in October 2010 and available in audio files on the website of the daily La Repubblica newspaper.

ROME/MADRID (Reuters) – Spain and Italy faced growing market pressure on Monday, stoking fears of a new phase in the euro zone debt crisis as Madrid’s budget problems threatened to drag in other southern European economies.

Yields on Spanish 10-year bonds have climbed over 6.1 percent, nearing levels that caused general market panic when Italy was in the same position late last year.

April 16 (Reuters) – Italy vowed on Monday to stick to a
pledge to balance the budget by next year despite a deepening
recession, as market jitters over Spain’s fragile public
finances aggravated fears of a dangerous new phase in the euro
zone debt crisis.

Yields on Spanish 10-year bonds have climbed over 6.1
percent, nearing levels that caused general market panic when
Italy was in the same position late last year. Italian 10-year
yields stood at almost 5.6 percent on Monday.