Insults, flags fly as Italian campaign ends

ROME --Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his center-left rival Romano Prodi held final, open-air rallies on Friday to bring the curtain down on the most acrimonious Italian general election campaign in living memory.

After two months of grueling electioneering dominated by anxiety over the economy, the two traded their last insults and offered their final promises ahead of the Sunday-Monday ballot.

Prodi closed his election drive in a sun-filled square in central Rome, while the prime minister held court in the Mediterranean port city of Naples.

Berlusconi said voters had to decide between an Italy ruled by the center left "that knows only how to tax, forbid, envy and hate" and one ruled by the center right that offered the country "love and rights."

The bespectacled Prodi told his flag-waving supporters that he would rule "for the greater good of Italy ... Ours will be a government for the whole country, for everyone."

Prodi, a former European Commission president, is favorite to win the vote with the most recent polls putting him some 3.5-5.0 percentage points ahead of his bitter foe.

However, the last surveys were published two weeks ago making the eventual outcome hard to predict.

In a final push for votes, Berlusconi announced that if he won he might scrap a tax on rubbish collection. Earlier this week he said he would abolish an unpopular property tax.

Rivals denounced the move as a desperate attempt to buy victory and said that after five years of economic stagnation, Italians no longer believed his promises.

"Berlusconi advertised dreams for the future, but they were dashed by reality. That's why I think there'll be a big victory for the center left," said Stefano Pucci, a 40-year-old salesman at Prodi's rally in Rome's Piazza del Popolo (People's Square).

CONSIDERING DEFEAT

Over the past two days, Berlusconi has spoken openly about possible defeat -- a word that previously was not part of his vocabulary -- and admitted that he was exhausted.

"I have no regrets, I did my duty, I believe in everything I did," he told reporters in Naples.

"I am not concerned if the left win because there is a huge population of my people who love me and adore me."

A controversial new electoral system rushed into law in December means that whoever wins the vote is certain to enjoy a smaller majority than the outgoing administration.

That has raised fears of political instability, with analysts warning that Prodi's broad alliance, which includes hardcore Communists and Roman Catholic centrists, could prove particularly vulnerable to internal feuding.

Commentators say Berlusconi's recent outbursts, including Thursday's assertion that U.N. observers were needed to prevent his rivals from rigging the vote, had polarized Italy and turned the ballot into a referendum on his leadership.

Earlier this week, he set off a political storm by calling center-left voters a swear word. On Friday, in a parting comment to his Naples rally, he repeated the phrase.

"We will win on Sunday and Monday because we aren't (expletive)," he said to cheers.

Official campaigning ends at midnight (2200 GMT), after which Italians will get a welcome 24-hour respite from comments by candidates, who are obliged by law to observe a day of silence ahead of the vote.

Polls will open at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday and Monday's second day of voting ends at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT).

Voting is already over for Italians abroad, who for the first time could pick their representatives among expatriates.

(Additional reporting by Rachel Sanderson in Naples and Robin Pomeroy and Silvia Aloisi in Rome)