Letter: Wool for the Italian sheep

Sir: With regard to your leading article 'Un Ballo in Maschera' (30 March), I would like to give you my reasons why I voted for Forza Italia. Silvio Berlusconi has discovered a need within Italian politics for a centre-right party, and has provided us with an opportunity to vote for something more reasonable than the alternatives previously offered. I know that he has debts and was a member of P2, but all Italians are guilty of using the old system to their advantage. I am guilty of using raccomandazioni to get what I wanted. What has angered us is the level of corruption, not the corruption itself.

Italy will always be the same, but things must improve if we are to compete with other countries. Most Italians would agree that the economy is most important: without wealth all the services and jobs we want would not materialise. Un uomo senza roba e come una pecora senza lana (A man (country) without wealth is like a sheep without wool).

We believe that corruption can be contained so that the economy is successful in spite of it, as in Japan's. For this reason, I believe, Italians have forgiven Berlusconi for his past, and voted for him.

Yours sincerely,

MARIO LAURENZA

Enfield, Middlesex

30 March