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ROME - Silvio Berlusconi led tens of thousands of Italians in the first big rally against Prime Minister Romano Prodi, shrugging off his recent collapse to denounce "a Government dominated by leftist extremists".
The 70-year-old former Prime Minister ignored advice to rest after fainting at a rally a week ago and spending three nights in hospital.
The billionaire businessman harangued the centre-left Government for "taxing Italians without representing them".
Berlusconi said more than two million people thronged Rome's Piazza San Giovanni to protest against Prodi's 2007 budget plans. There was no police estimate of the crowd.
"We're here because we want to stop the left impoverishing Italy materially and spiritually," said Berlusconi, depicting himself as champion of Catholic values "based on marriage between a man and a woman" and of Italian business.
The founder of Italy's biggest party, Forza Italia, Berlusconi was Prime Minister for five years until losing an election in April. Since then there has been subdued talk about who could replace him as opposition leader, with no heir apparent.
The centre-right opposition was not united for the rally, with the centrist UDC holding its own rally in Sicily.
- REUTERS
