ITALIANS in London expressed delight yesterday that they had played a key role in ousting Silvio Berlusconi, their pleasure diluted only by the narrowness of Romano Prodi’s victory.

“I feel embarrassed by Berlusconi,” Ornella Tarantola told The Times in her shop, the Italian Bookshop, near Leicester Square. “He’s a horrible man, and I am so happy for the voters in the UK that they have gone against him. We are very concerned about the state of the country and we need change.”

For the first time this year an estimated 2.6 million Italians living overseas were allowed to vote in their native country’s general election. The contest was so close that the 1.1 million who cast votes turned out to be the kingmakers.

Signor Prodi’s centre-left coalition won the Senate only because the overseas votes gave four seats to Signor Prodi and one to his opponent.

His bloc had an easy victory in the European district, taking more than 50 per cent of the vote for both chambers, though Forza Italia took one of the two Senate seats up for grabs in Europe.

During the campaign Italian politicians had crisscrossed continents to court the overseas vote.

Some expatriate Italians also put themselves up as candidates, including Ted Turner’s Italian-born daughter-in-law, Angela Della Costanza, who backed Signor Berlusconi.

In London, where there has been a thriving Italian community for centuries, the centre-left coalition won 44 per cent of the vote for the Senate and 43 per cent in the Lower House.

The result had been eagerly discussed for weeks in the Italian Bookshop but the outcome was an unpleasant surprise.

Signora Tarantola said: “It’s very strange. You can’t find anybody here or in Italy who says that they voted for Berlusconi but 49 per cent of them have done. I think there’s a sense of shame. I feel a bit embarrassed to be Italian at the moment.”

Pietro Molle, the national co-ordinator of the Christian Association of Italian Workers, in Clerkenwell, was more upbeat about the result: “We are quite chuffed. We have ensured that Prodi will form a government because of our votes.”

Fabrizio Margarita, 28, who owns an Italian sandwich bar in Leadenhall market, in the City, did not bother to vote. “There wasn’t much of a choice,” she said.

At Bar Italia on Frith Street, coverage of the Italian election was visible on four screens. Tiziana, a waitress, rushed back and forth with frothing mugs of cappuccino.

“I should have gone back to vote but I didn’t have time,” she said. “I would have voted for Prodi. Berlusconi is ridiculous.”

Round the corner on Brewer Street, Mario Molinari was buying salami and a box of ravioli. After half a century away from his home town of Piacenza, Signor Molinari, 82, had mixed feelings about the result. “What have Italian politicians done for me?” he asked.

“I had to emigrate to live. This is the first time they have given me the privilege to vote in Italy. I voted, of course, but it’s my business who for.”

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