(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Silvio Berlusconi maintains a positive approval rating in Italy, according to a poll by IPR Marketing published in La Repubblica. 55 per cent of respondents have confidence in their prime minister, down four points since June.

Italian voters renewed the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in April. Final results gave the Berlusconi coalition of right-leaning parties—encompassing the Italian People of Freedom Party (PdL), the Northern League (LN) and the Movement for Autonomy (MPA)—344 seats in the lower house, and 174 seats in the upper house. The victory put an end to the government of the centre-left Union (Unione), headed by Romano Prodi.

Berlusconi—Italy’s richest man—was sworn in as Italy’s new head of government on May 8. He had previously served as prime minister from May 1994 to January 1995, and from June 2001 to May 2006.

In Italy’s southern region of Campania—which includes the city of Naples—garbage trucks stopped operating in late December, after the city’s landfills were overrun.

Yesterday, Berlusconi declared the end of the garbage crisis in Campania, saying, "Naples and the region have once again become clean. A new phase is starting, one which consists of making the system of waste treatment work with the construction of the incinerators."

Polling Data

Do you have confidence in Silvio Berlusconi?

Source: IPR Marketing / La Repubblica
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 Italian adults, conducted on Jul. 14, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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