Italians turn their backs to Berlusconi

Italians made their voices heard Monday by voting down a group of referendums proposed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The above-average turnout voted with a 95 percent majority to desert the country's nuclear energy program, following Europe's growing fear of the energy source while abandoning their Prime Minister.

The PM's administration urged Italians to vote in favor of the legislation, which also included a referendum to privatize the national water supply and to give government officials partial immunity from prosecution.

On each theme, Italians have made their position clear. The government and Parliament will now have to take into account this result, Berlusconi's office said in a statement.

Italy is the latest European nation to turn away from nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan. Germany voted earlier this year to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Switzerland is expected to follow suit soon.

Berlusconi, who has served as Prime Minister for a total of ten years over three separate terms, made nuclear energy one of his chief projects in recent years. Once immensely popular, the multu-billionaire and media mogul has been rapidly losing favor with the Italian people as scandal after scandal has unfolded over the past year.

The magic flute is broken. After 20 years, Italians have stopped following Berlusconi's music, La Repubblica, a leftist daily paper wrote.

Italians have turned their backs on him, it added.

The outcome of the vote followed weeks after Berlusconi's conservative party was badly hurt in local elections.