Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi had their final face-to-face debate last night, which, according to initial figures, was watched by 20 million Italians. The first reactions seems to show that overall Prodi performed better throughout but Berlusconi stole the show at the last minute by declaring his intention to abolish ICI (a local tax on home-ownership akin to council tax in the UK).
The aim of both candidates is to convince those Italians who have yet to decide for which coalition of parties to vote for. The debate was dominated by the economy with Berlusconi attacking Prodi by accusing him to want to raise taxed to which Prodi repeatedly answered that they have no intention to raise taxes. Prodi, on the other hand, attacked Berlusconi on the performance of his government for the past five years, which has left Italy in one of the worst economic situations of the past twenty years.
Despite an initial call by journalists to keep the tones of the discussion as calm as possible the debate soon intensified. "The prime minister clings to numbers in the way a drunkard clings to lamp-posts - " Prodi said, "not for illumination, but to keep him standing up."
Mr Berlusconi replied: "I will not accept that. Have a little respect for the prime minister.
"Let me return Prodi's remark about the drunk by saying that Prodi is like a useful idiot - he lends his cheery parish priest face to the left, which is 70% made up of former communists."
"We're in the finishing straight now. The potential impact (on voters) is much lower than in the first meeting," said Marco Marturano, head of a political consultancy firm which has worked for centre-left leaders.
"This one just serves to motivate the two teams," added Marturano, saying that for Prodi this meant holding on to his 3-5% lead in the polls and for Berlusconi it meant ensuring his squad kept fighting till the end.
There are five days left to election on the 9th and 10th of April.
