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Italian Election: Three-month campaign to 'save Italy'

Tuesday 29 March 1994 23:02 BST
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October 1993: Berlusconi said Italy must be saved from the left, but categorically denied that he will enter politics to do so.

21 Oct 1993: Berlusconi announces he will 'save Italy from the left' and criteria are announced for the selection of candidates for a 'party of good government'.

17 Dec: Berlusconi transfers control of his media and publishing empire, to counter accusations that he cannot properly enter politics with so many vested interests. The new president of Fininvest, Berlusconi's holding company, is Fedele Confalonieri, a close friend and adviser.

1 Jan 1994: Forza Italia's programme is published. Leaders boast of the fact that it has been based largely on soundings from public- opinion polls.

4 January: Achille Occhetto, the leader of the left-wing alliance, accuses Berlusconi of demagogic fiscal policies, and compares him to a Latin American dictator. Berlusconi has long since been warning of the dangers of 'subversive Communists'. It is the beginning of an increasingly heated war of words between the two front-runners.

5 January: A poll of neo-Fascist mayors shows that they overwhelmingly support a pact between their National Alliance (AN) party and Forza Italia.

13 January: Indro Montanelli, respected editor of Il Giornale, a newspaper owned by Berlusconi, resigns after a row over his refusal to commit the paper to backing Berlusconi's election campaign.

26 January: Berlusconi officially announces that he is standing for election at the head of his new party, Forza Italia, because 'I don't want to live in an illiberal country governed by men linked to a past of political and economic failure.' Centrist politicians, many of whom had belonged to the old discredited Christian Democrats, snubbed Berlusconi's offer of an alliance in late 1993.

1 February: Forza Italia officially becomes a party; its constitution is deposited with a lawyer.

7 February: Forza Italia holds its first national convention. Candidates are coached in television techniques.

11 February: Berlusconi's brother and business associate, Paolo, is arrested on suspicion of bribery. Berlusconi accuses the judiciary and press of victimisation. Most journalists are, it seems, part of a 'Communist plot'.

11 February: Berlusconi signs an electoral pact with the federalist Northern League and AN. The right-wing alliance will be known as the Freedom Alliance in the north and the Alliance for Good Government in the south. The three allies immediately fall to attacking each other.

23 March: Police raid Forza Italia headquarters in Milan and Rome as part of an investigation into illegal freemasonry. That evening Berlusconi takes part in his first and only television debate with Mr Occhetto. The tycoon repeats his allegations of victimisation by 'Communists' and says that if the left wins, democracy will be threatened.

28 March: A victorious Berlusconi calls for reconciliation.

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