Self-made billionaire Silvio Berlusconi won a third term as Italian prime minister on Monday after his centre-left rival Walter Veltroni conceded defeat. "As is the custom in all Western democracies, I telephoned Berlusconi to acknowledge his victory and wish him good luck in his work," Veltroni, 52, told supporters of his Democratic Party (PD).
Berlusconi, 71, had earlier all but claimed victory after poll results showed his centre-right alliance won six seats more than the minimum needed for an absolute majority in the all-important Senate.
The flamboyant Berlusconi and his ally Gianfranco Fini expressed "deep satisfaction" about the incoming results during a telephone conversation, the ANSA news agency reported, citing a Fini spokesman.
The media tycoon now returns to the prime minister's office for the third time since 1994, the year after he burst onto the political stage by creating the Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party. The Piepoli polling institute had earlier tipped Berlusconi's centre-right coalition to win 164 of the Senate's 315 seats, giving him an absolute majority in the chamber. Victory in the Senate is essential to Italyot before being led away from a polling station in the southern town of Sorrento by police.