"The slaughter of illusions, the massacre of institutional law”, an “aberrant twisting of our democratic system”. So says Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in La Repubblica, commenting on the voting list mix-up. According to the former President of Italy, the fact that the Regional Administrative Tribunal has disqualified the PDL (Berlusconi’s Party of Liberty) list in Lazio “confirms that the government’s recent decree is a breach of the Constitution, since the government has no authority to act in matters concerning single Regions of Italy.”

Ciampi defends the President of Italy’s role. “What’s the sense of taking pot-shots at the President’s Palace? At this stage of the game it is in no one’s interest to stir up arguments about the President’s role – quite the opposite, we should be doing our utmost to protect the country’s highest authority,” he said, adding, “The best thing would have been be to put off the elections. But for that to have been possible, there would have had to be a concerted political determination, which the majority clearly lacked.”