A new public opinion poll shows a tremendous leap in popularity for neo-fascist leader Gianfranco Fini and places him within one percentage point of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as the person Italians would want to lead their country.
The survey published this week was conducted by the SWG Institute for Famiglia Cristiana (Christian Family) magazine, a popular weekly, and asked 1,000 Italians whom they would vote for if they could vote directly for prime minister.
Only 21.4 percent said they would vote for Berlusconi, a sharp drop from the 33.4 percent he garnered in a similar survey in February.
But 20.3 percent said they would vote for Fini, leader of the neo-fascist-led National Alliance. This was a huge surge from the 8.7 percent who said they would vote for him in February.
The National Alliance, which grew out of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, forms part of the coalition government along with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party and the separatist Northern League.
Support for Northern League leader Umberto Bossi remained constant at 5.1 percent.
The poll results indicate deep public disillusionment with Berlusconi, whose leadership image has been shaken by several recent crises that have also threatened to break up his fractious coalition.
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