Kingmaker once again - Silvio Berlusconi's party triumphs in elections as Italy looks ahead to national vote

Silvio Berlusconi, the master of the political come-back, declared himself the driving force of Italy’s centre-Right after his Forza Italia party and its allies triumphed in local elections across the country.

Despite being forced to resign six years ago amid claims of paying for sex with an underage prostitute, the 80-year-old billionaire businessman has emerged once again as a kingmaker in Italy’s fractured political landscape.

He was exuberant after a centre-Right bloc consisting of his party, the anti-immigration Northern League and a smaller Right-wing partner triumphed in local elections.

The results hinted at the possible outcome of a general election, which Italy is due to hold sometime before next Spring, although analysts warned that local results would not necessarily be replicated at the national level.

“I am the driving force of the centre-Right,” the former prime minister said, as the results of Sunday’s voting emerged on Monday. 

He boasted that he had given 46 television interviews during the campaign, injecting energy into his party’s efforts. “I’m back, and you can see the results,” he said. “If we remain united, we will win the general election. And we will do so with a programme that I’m drawing up and will make public soon.”

He may be back at the coal face of Italian politics but “Il Cavaliere” (The Knight) is unlikely ever to return as prime minister – not just because of his age but also because he was banned from public office for at least six years in 2013 after being convicted of tax evasion. 

He is fighting an appeal against the ban at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The Right’s biggest achievement was to take the working-class port city of Genoa, which has been a stronghold of the Left for more than 50 years.  They also won L’Aquila, the mountain city that was devastated by an earthquake in 2009, as well as Verona, Como and Monza.

"The wind is blowing for the centre-Right from the north to the centre to the south. This is an extraordinary victory," said Renato Brunetta, the leader of Forza Italia in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies.

For Forza Italia to do as well at a national level they will need to forge an alliance at a with the Northern League – but years of squabbling between the two parties mean that could prove difficult.

Even so, Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, was buoyant at a press conference on Monday. "I can't wait to export the model from these local elections to the national level. "If, after decades, they ask us to govern in Genova, Pistoia or Sesto San Giovanni, it means that we can govern the country too.”

More than four million Italians were eligible to vote in more than 100 towns and cities where no candidate won more than 50 per cent in a first round of voting on June 11. 

The big loser of the elections was the ruling, centre-Left Democratic Party. The results were a serious setback for Matteo Renzi, the leader of the Democrats, who resigned as prime minister in December after losing a referendum on constitutional reform but who hopes to return to power.

"Things could have gone better but general elections are a different story," Mr Renzi said.

The elections also highlighted disappointment for the anti-establishment, Eurosceptic Five Star Movement – it was absent from most of the second round voting because it performed so poorly in the first round.

Analysts said it would be a mistake, however, to see the municipal election results as a precursor to the outcome of a national vote.

The Five Star Movement may be down but it is by no means out, said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political scientist from Luiss University in Rome. “I would be very cautious about declaring this the beginning of the end,” he told The Telegraph. 

 “Their performance in Rome (where Virginia Raggi, the mayor, is from Five Star) certainly has had an impact, because Rome is very visible, but they are still polling 25-30 per cent in surveys. That is about the same as the Democratic Party.”