Silvio Berlusconi

Rome, Dec. 16 (Reuters): Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was reeling from a new blow today after Italy’s President rejected a bill relaxing limits on media ownership, which critics say was tailor-made for the tycoon-turned-politician.

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi refused to sign the media bill late yesterday, and sent it back to parliament in a twin blow to Berlusconi’s political interests and media empire.

“It’s a significant setback and it has certainly angered Berlusconi,” said Franco Pavoncello, a professor of political science at John Cabot University in Rome.

Berlusconi has recently suffered a flurry of political setbacks, including the weekend collapse of European Union constitutional talks that he chaired. Ciampi’s decision strikes Italy’s richest man in the pocketbook.

The Berlusconi family’s broadcaster Mediaset was one of the biggest losers on the Milan stock market today, down 2.5 per cent at 9.70 euros at 1200 GMT.

Berlusconi, who influences an estimated 95 per cent of Italian TV through his political office and his business interests, appeared nonchalant before the decision.

“I will take into account what the head of state says, and the eventual changes he might propose,” he told reporters after a meeting with Ciampi yesterday. “If the changes were intelligent, parliament would take that into account.”

But sources said Berlusconi was “livid” after hearing Ciampi’s decision. Despite pleas from the Opposition, Ciampi had been broadly expected to approve the bill.

It was the first time he had refused to sign a bill into law for other than budget reasons.