Voters deal Berlusconi latest blow in referendums

Voters deal Berlusconi latest blow in referendums

People celebrate following partialresultsof Italian referendums on waterandnuclear power in Rome on Monday, June13, 2011.

             Italian voters turned out in large numbers to deal Premier Silvio Berlusconi his latest blow at the ballot box, overturning laws passed by his government to revive nuclear energy, privatize the water supply -- and help him avoid prosecution.
            The defeat on four referendums on the ballot Sunday and Monday was Berlusconi's second in as many weeks, after his candidates lost mayoral races in his stronghold Milan and trash-choked Naples in a vote the billionaire media mogul himself had billed as a referendum on his government.
           Center-left opposition leader Pier Luigi Bersani said the referendum results were tantamount to "a divorce between the government and the country."
          Activists for the "yes" vote on four referendums erupted in cheers in the capital Rome when it became clear that voter turnout, topping 57 percent, had surpassed the quorum needed to validate the vote. It was the first time since 1995 that the quorum of more than 50 percent was reached.
         Italy becomes the second Group of Eight country after Germany to ditch nuclear energy following the nuclear disaster in Japan triggered by the March 11 quake and tsunami. Germany announced last month plans to abandon its nuclear program by 2022. It is the second time Italy has said no to nuclear power. The first time was a 1987 referendum, the year after the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.
        Berlusconi, who for years exercised his right not to attend his own trial, now says he wants to defend himself in court.
           Among the criminal cases he is facing in Milan is his trial on charges of having paid for sex with an underage teen and then using his influence to cover it up.