Italian 'farce' as Berlusconi doesn't resign
Political confusion deepened in Rome tonight when Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi contradicted earlier expectations that he was about to resign and form a new government by saying he had not stepped down.
Berlusconi had been expected to make the move to strengthen his conservative coalition.
After an earlier emergency meeting of coalition leaders in Rome, Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini had told reporters that Berlusconi would resign. The offer was expected to come when Berlusconi met President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi this evening.
But after meeting the president, Berlusconi said he had not resigned, news agencies reported.
Asked by reporters if he had handed in his resignation during the talks, Berlusconi responded “No”, the ANSA news agency reported.
Berlusconi was quoted as saying he would explain the situation in parliament, but it was unclear when he would do so.
The confusion immediately prompted outrage from the opposition centre-left.
Piero Fassino, leader of the Democratic Party of the Left, spoke of “a crisis that is being transformed into an indecent farce”.
He added: “With his behaviour, the premier is making a mockery of his coalition, the institutions and the whole country at once,” he said.
Berlusconi had been under pressure from his allies to resign since the coalition lost 11 of the 13 regions that were up for grabs in elections April 3-4.
Last week, a key centrist party headed by deputy premier Marco Follini pulled its ministers out of the Cabinet and demanded that Berlusconi form a fresh government with a new platform.
Follini today renewed his commitment to a new Berlusconi government, and Berlusconi made the “ensuing decision to hand in his resignation to the head of state,” the foreign minister said after the meeting of coalition leaders.
Resigning and immediately forming a new government is a tactic that has been used often by Italian premiers to strengthen faltering coalitions. Berlusconi had resisted the move, dismissing it as a remnant of Italy’s messy political past.
Once the premier hands in a resignation, it is up to the president to decide whether to ask Berlusconi – or another candidate – to form a new government, or else dissolve parliament and call early elections.
If a political agreement has been reached among majority forces, the president is expected to go along with it.
Berlusconi’s coalition took power in 2001 and the premier hoped the government would become the first in post-war Italy to serve out the full five-year term.
After the centre-right’s collapse in the regional vote, Berlusconi had proposed a Cabinet reshuffle and a revised programme to relaunch the coalition ahead of the general election next year.
The proposal was rejected by Follini’s party, the Union of Christian Democrats, or UDC.
The conservatives suffered another setback today as they appeared to be losing in a local election held in the southern Basilicata region for the past two days.
Projections showed the incumbent centre-left candidate was well ahead of his centre-right opponent, news agencies reported.
