"Now there are more results for the elections. Berlusconi did win in Milan (yuck), Palermo (a city in Sicily) and Parma (near Bologna). Actually, his name was, like all candidates for that vote, a write-in, and he was at the head of his party's list for the elections in all regional areas; but it was well known that he would relinquish his seat in the European Parliament to the next highest voted after him in order to continue as P.M. in Italy (lucky us). He was resoundingly defeated in one area (central - where Rome is) by a famous woman journalist, Lilli Gruber, he had had "expelled" from our state television channels because, while transmitting from Iraq, she had made some faux pas like calling the rebel forces "resistance" forces, the allied presence an "occupation," and the coalition army the "invading" army. She got the most votes of any candidate in the elections - around 700,000 in one area where she was a candidate and 300,000 in another. Another journalist who was banned from state TV because his talk programs were too politically oriented to the left, Michele Santoro, got 400,000 votes where he was a candidate. He told the press (I'll translate): "My success and that of Lilli Gruber give value to the fact that we are conducting a battle for freedom of expression, and this same impression is also present in the public opinion."
"I got the count wrong for the number of our representatives. It was 37 for the left and 36 for the right.
"The Mayor of Naples (left wing) is saying that Berlusconi's party was paying 30 euros for votes there in the poorest sections of town. I can't say how true this is, but in the previous elections (in which it seems it had already happened), she reported this to the authorities with the names of the culprits. The left won hands down in Naples, and, as she says, ".just to be clear, without packages of pasta (given away) and votes bought at 30 euros." "