silvio silvio berlusconi yes he is back against a center left alliance led by another former prime minister matteo renzi the other main player is the anti-establishment five star movement as our correspondent max hoffman reports from palermo migration has been the biggest issue driving voters. i think father and knows this neighborhood like no one else. has taken me to the markets and institution in old town palermo i'm trying to get a feel for what matters to people in this election migration seems to be at the top of the list. the tone of the current campaign is very harsh i'm afraid that the topic of migration is being exploited from the left and from the right these people don't understand the value of migrants and migration that can bring into a country then they need to get it and you got to. sicily has always been an island between two continents many africans that make it to europe spend a lot of time here some learn italian in charity sponsored classes like this one right next to the market hoping to be granted asylum others move on. there are approximately five hundred thousand undocumented migrants in italy and one man italians are very familiar with this calling the situation a social time bomb. that man is the former prime minister and billionaire eighty one years old and the centerpiece of many scandals involving among other things an underage call girl named ruby and tax fraud yet there is a good possibility she will be forging the next governing coalition once again it would be one leaning strongly to the right capitalizing on the current immigration in italy. in spite of his checkered past fellow party members think he's italy's best hope for reforms. but you could lose a little time at the bank than join us out i'm going to get this going he has extensively proven his dedication in the past he's a good businessman and has achieved a lot for himself and his partners the strength of purpose and his passion are the reason why we sicilia and i hope our talian since the whole are turning back to his incredible man. minutes a week in pinoy decision jani and despair i can you tell jani. and he has special ties to palermo it's here that he laid the foundation for his comeback in regional elections last year. at the market. lots of fans especially among men. going to school he was in power there were more jobs. i mean he's the perfect person it's even better that he wants an alliance with the far right the young. people i think is the only one who can save us. it's like the old italian political scene if you stick around long enough you can become a saint. but father vote deals in real estate and has a different view about us going to primarily because of his attitude towards migrants. going to this one the obvious one of. his allies are very tough and want to get rid of migrants this is a demand that's completely outside of reality. for you a lot. of my impression is reality has never seemed to be a big concern of bella's going his especially in campaigns and especially regarding migration. i know was the reporting of from palermo last week he joins us now for more on this story hi max what is the feeling that you got from talking to people why is migration such a divisive issue here. well their facts and perceptions to me the facts are pretty clear italy of course is the centerpiece of the whole migration route especially from the northern africa through the mediterranean and then from italy towards the rest of europe it has been like that for years but of course the numbers. perked up in the last years although we had a slight drop in two thousand and seventeen twenty percent approximately down to one hundred and nineteen thousand still pretty high numbers there that's one thing the other thing is that there were some high profile incidents in the last weeks and months involving for example drive by shooting by right wing extremists who shot six african migrants then there was the case of the murder of an italian girl where some african migrants are now being scrutinized over so all of this of course made the press all of this was instrumental lies also especially by the right wing parties and that's why this has gained so much traction something that would have been this is fairly expected in fall but yes migration is definitely one of the most important topics in this italian election and we saw in your report that silvio berlusconi of south said migration is a social time bomb and he will likely be the one forging the next government how worry does brussels. likely you will see the polls are pretty unreliable in italy but at least he has a pretty good chance of doing that and if you had mentioned that only a couple of years ago nobody would have believed it and what's so bizarre in this is that he actually might be the best hope for the european union to get things done in the next months even years because as you know the un situations have very emissions plans to reform the euro zone and the rest of the european union and what they really need is a functioning government in italy in berlusconi seems to have like i said one of the best chances doesn't mean this is actually going to happen but one of the best chances of forging a government and they know what they get with that is going to be yes he's a populist but he's not radically anti european union and that's worth something for the e.u. institu

the former prime minister silvio berlusconi has re—emerged as a political force, even silvio berlusconigh he cannot stand and become prime minister as yet because of a fraud charge. he is frame much seen as a power. this is matteo renzi casting his vote today. it is expected there could again be a coalition. let's get the very latest on the background to this whole election. italians are electing members of both houses of parliament. 630 in the lower house of deputies and 315 in the upper house, the senate but at this time the system has been tweaked so that seeds of first past the post, the candidate with most votes in the district wins. the other ones are chosen by proportional representation, based on the share of the vote nationally. this election sees some new faces and not so new battling it out for supremacy. the keeper is likely to be silvio berlusconi. yes, here's back. —— a key player. if fraud conviction bars him from holding office at least until next year. he is teamed up with two parties on the ha rd is teamed up with two parties on the hard right, including la lega. the f

are strongly xenophobic party, got more preferences than the more moderate silvio berlusconi party. so it is a rear “— silviofar—right. the south—east totally completely five star movement. with some the region receiving 50% of the vote. luigi di receiving 5096 of the vote. luigi di maio's party, the five star movement. isn't this a game changer if they decide they could form a coalition? —— is this. if they decide they could form a coalition? -- is this. well, this is what they have to be able to convince the other parties that they are serious they say they want to enter in the conversation. now they use the word conversation and dialogue on issues. but in fact they are still in the process of learning how to enter the kind of coalition strategy and language. but since they are learning very quickly because they have shown to be great campaigners. they had a fantastic electoral campaign so perhaps, we hope so, because we do not have any hopes at this point to have a stable majority, that they can learn how to make a coalition. first of all, they have to enter in a kind of dialogue with the other forces bec

coalition led by silvio berlusconi will emerge as the strongest force to try to form a government in the days and weeks after sunday's election many many people had written off silvio berlusconi he can't stand himself but he does have his fans and not just that the northern league has grown recently they held their final rally on friday saying again that immigration was a key problem for italy and people who've arrived in recent years are taking jobs away from young italians so as well as anti-corruption and as you mentioned i am a gratian what else is one of the dominant themes of this campaign what are people actually going to be going to the polls regarding. well one of the key things of course is money in people's pockets and unemployment youth unemployment in italy for the under twenty five is around one third the country also got the second highest ject debt to g.d.p. in the eurozone and that's a huge challenge for whoever is in government. about a basic income many of the parties have actually promised a universal guaranteed income for example the five star movement has said it should be around one thousand dollars some people have even said that they would

silvio berlusconi, in coalition with that, with 12.5%—15.5% will be the single biggest party within the centre—right coalition. an interesting power struggle in the right. to see if la lega edges ahead of silvio's. earlier i spoke to lara comi from the forza italia party about the exit poll results. iam waiting i am waiting for the final result. it is the intention of the voting but i waiting for the final result. iam happy but i waiting for the final result. i am happy because now my party is in first position because it is not at the same level. looking at their forza italia figures, the same as your coalition partners to the far—right. is this the end of silver berlusconi in forza italia? absolutely not. we will shake in the end but the result is good for us and we also have the regional campaign in lombardy and lazio. it is important to understand what happens tomorrow because at the moment nobody is able to organise and create a government. very optimistic about silver berlusconi and forza italia's results. five star movement is an antique establishment falls. what do you think this government is going to look like? how much of a pata will five star movement play, they are at 35% within.

silvio boase coney's leadership in the centre right and the north league will have a strong say in that coalition. -- silvio berlusconi. what difference do think the new electoral system will have made question papers looked at being something to keep the five star movement down. we need to consider that these figures can change very much during the night. this electoral system is very difficult in this scheme. first the proportional vote and then the first past the post votes. it is difficult i'iow. past the post votes. it is difficult now. it is up to the president of the republic to decide how to start this negotiation. the first milestone we have to consider is that, on the 23rd of march, the senate and the chamber will appoint president. we will see if we have a kind of majority balance between the groups and then we can understand how the negotiation will go. the left, the centre—left coalition, is really trailing 20% to 23%, according to the x8 poll.|j really trailing 20% to 23%, according to the x8 poll. i am just looking at the democratic party now. —— the looking at the democratic party now. -- the x8 looking at the democratic party now. —— the x8 poll. it is around 23%, not a huge score. i would also put in question the leadership of the current secretary. altogether... matteo renzi, the former prime minister. the coalition together, they will have to start compromising and accepting conditions proposed by others. do we have any idea what the main, orthe others. do we have any idea what the main, or the most likely, possibilities for a coalition combination might be? at the moment you could just take your pick. exactly. it is like that you can ta ke exactly. it is like that you can take any party. trying to find if you can reach a majority. actually, i think it is too soon to go like that. in the previous days there have been talks about negotiation between the democratic party and the forza italia. it appears to be on the model of the broad coalition, like in germany, for example. then we start to think about the five star movement with the northern league. that would be the populist apocalypse that some people were scared of. populist, exactly will stop how many days, weeks and months to rethink... it is hard to guess, isn't it? will it be as long as germany? will we see the same thing in italy? we have to wait at least until three o'clock in the morning, if not much longer, maybe six, seven o'clock, to have secured data that we can say something will stop in any case you we can say something will stop in any case you can we can say something will stop in any case you can have any kind of scenario and we will see a period of speculation and negotiations. the most eurosceptic scenario of course will be the five star movement together with the north league. that would be the scariest one of those who believed in the european project. as we were mentioning before, there have been rumours of negotiations between the democratic party and silvioe numbers. how much caution should we have? —— forza italia. numbers. how much caution should we have? -- forza italia. a lot of caution. she was saying until three in the morning, maybe later, we do not know. we are not secure about what we are seeing. it is really difficult to make a call at this moment, especially if there is a gap between the weakest part and the strongest one. i want to come back to the other question. you ask how long it will take will stop at least a month before the parliament has selected its president and then we start the negotiation. the new mps, the new government were they all have to sit down in the building behind us and in the senate before the president can actually give a mandate to try to form a coalition to the chosen party? exactly. it will be like that. you'll be april at least we will see within two months if we can have a government. -- it will months if we can have a government. —— it will be april. months if we can have a government. -- it wi

silvio berlusconi is in the thick of things yet again this despite scandal after scandal and tax fraud convention conviction rather could we really see him climbing back to the top of the italian political mountain. silvio berlusconi is an experienced mountaineer he's been up on that peak four times why not climb a fifth time the only problem he has really is that within the next two years he can hold public office of being convicted because of texas beijing but guess what the political dinosaur if you want has found a trick around that a caretaker if you want he asked the president of the european parliament to jani if he would want to become prime minister in italy until in two years he could take over and fulfill that promise that you finally election poses throughout the country it says president to balance tony. and like you have the big picture just as germany europe is watching the italian a lecture rather closely what's at stake for the e.u. . basically if there's a hung parliament that would be a massive destruction it could take months of negotiating and it could distract from actually making necessary reforms to be bring the country back on its feet taking it out of the deep debt crisis resolving that m

rome. here, and a few blocks away is silvio berlusconi's rome residence. silvioce, so he could not become prime minister. minister. italia, have a centre—right coalition and are the biggest party. coalition and are the biggest party. —— forza italia. unheard of for a party getting a majority, so coalitions matter here. majority, so coalitions matter here. largest economy in the european union. union. recovering, but when it has problems the rest of europe is affected. the rest of europe is affected. brexit on the cards, that matters as well. well. of migrants arriving on these shores in the last couple of years. in the last couple of years. that is an issue here. an issue here. since then, is la liga, the former northern league. northern league. critics called a xenophobic and racist party. xenophobic and racist party. they are certainly anti—immigration. are certainly anti—immigration. matteo renzi's party is also in there. there. antiestablishment, they may be the single biggest party. single biggest party. more after the polls close here at 11 o'clock tonight.