Italy's Silvio Berlusconi pledged today to use his big election win to push through economic reforms, and vowed to close the border to illegal immigrants in a crackdown on criminals he called "the army of evil".
The 71-year-old conservative secured a third term as prime minister but owed his majority in parliament to the support of the xenophobic Northern League, which won 8 per cent of votes.
In comments likely to be applauded by the League, he promised tough measures against crime, blamed by many Italians on illegal immigrants, as well as an Italian rescue for Alitalia airline and an end to a garbage crisis in Naples.
"One of the first things to do is to close the frontiers and set up more camps to identify foreign citizens who don't have jobs and are forced into a life of crime," Berlusconi said.
"Secondly we need more local police constituting an 'army of good' in the piazzas and streets to come between Italian people and the army of evil," he said in a television interview.
A staunch ally of Washington in its "war on terrorism" when he was last in power, Berlusconi had a call from President George W. Bush congratulating him on Sunday and Monday's vote.
Berlusconi said he had received similar calls from the leaders of Germany, France, Britain and Spain and Russia's Vladimir Putin, who will visit him in Sardinia later this week.
Although many Italians are disillusioned with politics and doubt any government can quickly cure the ills of the European Union's fourth-largest economy, Berlusconi's strong position is likely to help him to push reforms through parliament.
Parliament has been purged of tiny parties which have held governing coalitions hostage and will now only have six parties as opposed to 20 after the 2006 election. Romano Prodi quit as prime minister in January after a small Catholic party defected.
Now we'll govern like major Western democracies, with one major party in power and one major party in opposition," said Berlusconi.
"With the extremists gone ... we'll operate extremely quickly in parliament and get to work modernising this
country."
His campaign pledges included tax cuts on first homes and on overtime income to help consumers and boost growth.
But economists say he has a record of failing to carry out meaningful reforms and control spending, while his main allies are protectionist parties who may obstruct reforms.
The election made the Northern League the third-largest force after Berlusconi's People of Freedom and the defeated Democratic Party of Walter Veltroni. Berlusconi has promised the League at least two cabinet posts.
A drubbing for the far left means Italy will not have a communist or socialist lawmaker in parliament for the first time in recent memory. The League's deputy leader Roberto Maroni said this meant "the Berlin Wall has now fallen in Italy too".