Italian Premier Promises ‘Firmness’ Against Dissent
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
NAPLES, Italy — Silvio Berlusconi promised yesterday to wash Italy clean of fear and use “absolute firmness” against any dissent.
The 71-year-old prime minister held the first meeting of his new cabinet in rubbish-strewn Naples in order to resolve the city’s perennial problems of crime and unemployment.
At the end of the five-hour meeting, Mr. Berlusconi promised to govern the city and the country with an iron fist. “We have painful tasks ahead, but we will act with unswerving determination,” he said. He reclassified the areas of the city containing rubbish dumps as “areas of national strategic interest” and added: “That means they are now military zones.”
Until now, Naples had been unable to use many of its dumps because local residents have mounted protests.
