Silvio Berlusconi, the Centre Right leader and media tycoon, will order the re-writing of school history books to extol “forgotten heroes of the Right” if he wins this weekend’s election as expected, according to a key ally.

Marcello dell’Utri, who helped Mr Berlusconi to found Forza Italia and enter politics in 1994, said that history text books were “leftwing”. He said that the “forgotten heroes” included Vittorio Mangano, Mr Berlusconi’s former driver and stable manager on his Milan estate, who was convicted of a Mafia-linked murder and died of cancer in prison in 2000.

Prosecutors said that Mangano had acted as a “bridge” between Cosa Nostra in Sicily and Mafia activities in northern Italy.

Mr dell’Utri, a Sicilian from Palermo, has also been convicted for having “Mafia connections” but is appealing against a nine-year prison sentence handed down in 2004. He remains a senator, and runs a network of Forza Italia clubs as well as serving as one of Mr Berlusconi’s closest advisers.

Today he told a political website on YouTube that Italian history books were all leftwing and focused on the role of the Resistance in ending Fascism during the Second World War.

“History books are still influenced today by the rhetoric of the Resistance, and will be revised if we win the election” he said. He added: “The Left still has a grip on the universities and publishers. And it is a commonplace that our culture is leftwing”.

The Centre Right is ahead in opinion polls, though the Centre Left, led by Walter Veltroni, the former mayor of Rome, claims that it is narrowing the lead as the election nears this Sunday and Monday.

Giuseppe Fioroni, the Minister of Education in the outgoing Centre Left government of Romano Prodi, said: “The Resistance was not dreamt up by the history books.”

Resistance fighters had sacrificed their lives to create the post-war Italian Republic, “and it is that sacrifice that allows Italians today, including Dell’Utri, to live in a free country”.

Mr Dell’Utri poured scorn on Mafia supergrasses, or pentiti, and said that they were mistakenly seen as heroes when the “true heroes” were those “forgotten by the State” such as Mangano, who had refused to earn release from prison by “making accusations against Berlusconi and myself. He was a hero in his way.”

Mr Veltroni has accused Mr Berlusconi of avoiding the subject of the Mafia during the election campaign. In a speech in Sicily Mr Veltroni said: “Mafiosi are criminals, assassins and vile people, because you have to be vile to dissolve children in acid.”

He added: “Let me say clearly to the Mafia: choose who you want to vote for, but do not choose us.” According to several pentiti, Bernardo Provenzano, the Mafia Godfather arrested on the eve of the last election in 2006, instructed his followers to support Forza Italia, now part of an alliance with the Far Right Alleanza Nazionale called The People of Liberty.

Today Mr Berlusconi turned his fire on magistrates who have investigated him 11 times for alleged corruption. He said that magistrates were all left wing and should undergo “regular mental health checks”.

He said that he was”100 per cent” certain of winning the election, and rejected the idea of a grand coalition with the Centre Left in the event of deadlock in the Senate.Despite Mr Berlusconi’s opinion poll lead, the electoral system passed by his last administration assigns seats in the Senate on a region-by-region basis, which tends to produce parity or a slim majority, as in the case of Romano Prodi, whose government collapsed after 20 months.

Mr Veltroni challenged Mr Berlusconi to join him in pledging to defend the unity of the Italian state after Umberto Bossi, leader of the separatist Northern League, which is allied to the Centre Right, threatened to “take up arms” against “those scoundrels in Rome” in a row over “confusing” ballot papers. Mr Berlusconi retorted that he did not take lessons on loyalty to the State from Mr Veltroni, who was “a former Communist”. He denied that he had promised a cabinet post to Mr Bossi, adding that the Northern League leader, who is recovering from a stroke, was not in a good state of health.

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