Naples' Trash Tops Berlusconi's To-Do List

Incoming Italian PM says he'll be in garbage-strewn city three days a week
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 15, 2008 4:52 PM CDT
Naples' Trash Tops Berlusconi's To-Do List
Silvio Berlusconi says cleaning up trash piling up in Naples, seen here in January file photo, is atop his priorities list after winning parliamentary elections.   (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Silvio Berlusconi said today his first task as Italy's prime minister will be to clean up garbage-strewn Naples, the BBC reports. After a clear victory for his center-right coalition in this week's elections, the 71-year-old media tycoon promised to spend three days a week in the city and to "leave only when I'm sure I've found a definitive solution" to the trash clogging its streets.

Fighting a criminal "army of evil" is also a top priority for Berlusconi, set to return to Italy's top job after 20 months away, Reuters adds, noting that his tough stance on crime, and on closing the border to immigrants many Italians blame for it, is likely to please xenophobic coalition partners. (More Silvio Berlusconi stories.)

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