The final results of weekend elections in Italy have shown that Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition gained strong majorities in both houses of parliament. The media tycoon's "House of Freedom" coalition won 368 seats in the 630-member Lower House of Parliament and 177 in the 315-member upper house Senate, the Italian Interior Ministry said. The outgoing centre-left coalition lost its majority in both houses, where it will now have 250 seats in Lower House and 130 in the Senate. The hard-line Reformed Communists will have 11 seats in the Lower House.
The biggest loser in Sunday's vote was Mr Berlusconi's election ally, Umberto Bossi, leader of the far-right Northern League. His party only secured around 3.9% of Lower House votes. In the previous general election in 1996, the Northern League won more than 10%. The presence of Mr Bossi in Mr Berlusconi's alliance had caused widespread concern among Italy's partners in the European Union because of the League's anti-EU and xenophobic policies.
Reacting to the news of the controversial media mogul's likely victory yesterday, European leaders urged calm. France's European Affairs Minister, Pierre Moscovici, said that, while the election result was not good news for everyone, there would be no possibility of an EU reaction similar to that imposed on Austria last year. The EU isolated Austria after Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel formed a coalition with a right-wing party. Mr Moscovici said that the cases of Italy and Austria were "not comparable".
