Knight Of The New Right

Media mogul Silvio Berlusconi rides into power with the help of neofascists

THE FIRST DAY OF ELECTION WEEK IN Italy was an inauspicious one for Silvio Berlusconi. The media doge turned politician passed several fitful hours last Sunday watching in dismay as his championship Milan A.C. soccer team suffered a rare upset to archrival Naples. But there was no augury in the loss -- at least not for the moment. Just seconds after 10 the following night, when two days' worth of voting was done, Berlusconi stood triumphant on Italy's center stage; Forza Italia (Go Italy!), the party he had conjured from thin air barely three months ago, had emerged as the most...

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