Italy's left ponders future after crushing defeat

By Phil Stewart

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's centre left lost power on Monday but gloomy supporters like Giuseppe Pelladone will tell you the worst is yet to come.

"The real nightmare is ahead of us," the 22-year-old student said. "We have five more years of Silvio Berlusconi".

Berlusconi is the nemesis of the left. The conservative billionaire, who is returning to power for a third time, has proved he has a rare ability in Italy to serve a full five-year term as prime minister. He did so from 2001 to 2006.

The centre left's fear is that he could do it again, as he promised in his first comments after the election.

That concern deepened the gloom at the centre-left Democratic Party's headquarters on Monday evening.

In a country where governments since World War Two have on average survived for only about one year, the centre left fears remaining in the political wilderness until 2013.

"I don't think they knew what they were doing when they voted for Berlusconi. Don't they realize what this means?" asked Maria Ravastini, standing outside the party's headquarters. "I only hope that we grow stronger because of this."

Only a handful of centre-left voters hung around long enough to catch a glimpse of Walter Veltroni, the former Rome mayor they had hoped would become prime minister.

By then, he was on his way to concede defeat.

Even an ardent supporter carrying a colorful sign reading "Thanks Anyway, Walter" had disappeared by then. He left his poster hanging on a windowframe.

Veltroni tried to put a positive spin on the results, saying the centre left still did better than pollsters had expected.

The hard left also suffered a big blow.

"We must acknowledge this was a defeat, and a significant one," said communist Fausto Bertinotti, who quit as head of the red-green Rainbow Left alliance which was trounced in the election.

Many centre leftists failed to see any upside. One university student spoke of leaving the country to pursue opportunities abroad.

Italy's economy is close to recession, consumer buying power is falling and Italians say good jobs are harder to find.