'Italian news reports say a man punched Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in the face at a rally in Milan and the leader was whisked away in a car after falling to the ground.
State TV showed Berlusconi with blood on his lips as he was lifted to his feet by aides' more here
It looks likely that while Berlesconi has been punched in the face by an irate voter in Milan, his equavilent in Chile has won an election. (video here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8410946.stm)
Sebastian Pinera, a media and football club owning billionaire, looks like the first right wing candidate to win the Presidency in 50 years.
He is ahead in todays poll but it looks likely that a run off vote in January will still go ahead.
Disillusionment with elites who run society for the super rich is growing and populist leaders are being manufactured to gather up votes from those who feel left out....so that the super rich can remain in control.
Typically policy light, right wing candidates come from the business world and control media empires. They can buy the public opinion of those who reject a society based on elite rule.
In the UK, with the three main political parties rooting for the elite, right wing populism in the form of UKIP and the BNP are working to gather votes.
Right wing populism is fuelled by a mixture of very real grievance framed by right wing media into hostility to ethnic minorities and channelled in an authoritarian direction.
Right wing billionaire political leaders are taking control in too many places.
Left concern are transmuted back into reinforcing the right.
Bread and circuses, well Forza Italia, the Sun and Latin American right wing TV all come to mind.
The Chile example is a little different, division on the left and disillusionment with the centre left are important but the same process is common.
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