Italy: Berlusconi coalition at risk of collapse(coalition partner quits)

Financial Times ^ | 04/15/05 | Tony Barber

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Berlusconi coalition at risk of collapse

By Tony Barber in Rome
Published: April 15 2005 03:00 | Last updated: April 15 2005 11:04

Italy’s ruling centre-right coalition was struggling to hold itself together on Friday after Marco Follini, the Union of Christian Democrats (UDC) leader and deputy prime minister called on his party to leave the coalition but to continue supporting the government in Parliament.

Mr Follini proposed the move at an emergency meeting of the UDC on Friday, after leaders of all four ruling parties met on Thursday to form a response to a devastating defeat in region-al elections last week that was caused in part by Italy's increasingly acute economic difficulties.

“My proposal is, at the point we are at, to withdraw our delegation from the government and ask ministers and undersecretaries, starting with me, to leave their posts and to guarantee the government our loyal parliamentary support,” Mr Follini said.

After four hours of talks on Thursday evening, the leaders broke up their meeting when it became clear that Mr Berlusconi would not accept the demand of Mr Marco Follini, that the premier should form a new government with new policies and a new mandate from parliament.

The UDC's withdrawal from the government would not automatically force Mr Berlusconi into a snap general election but it would severely disrupt the balance of forces in his government and increase the probability of an election before May 2006, the normal end-date for the five-year legislature.

Mr Berlusconi said last week he was not against a national election as early as October but he indicated this week he would prefer a less drastic solution to his government's problems that would involve a small cabinet reshuffle and a re-adjustment of his economic policies.

Among the government parties, however, only the populist Northern League and his own Forza Italia party have been prepared to follow this minimalist approach to a political crisis that is the worst to strike Mr Berlusconi since he took power in 2001.

Gianfranco Fini, foreign minister and leader of the conservative National Alliance, said yesterday that he had asked Mr Berlusconi to seek a parliamentary vote of confidence next week on a new government programme.

The programme would include boosting help for businesses, families and Italy's relatively less well-off southern regions.

Since the regional election debacle of April 3-4, Mr Fini has been less critical than Mr Follini of Mr Berlusconi's leadership. But in a sign of spreading discontent with Mr Berlusconi's response to the defeat, Gianni De Michelis, the leader of a small government-aligned party, made clear that he, too, would withdraw his support if the premier offered nothing more than minor cabinet changes.

Mr Berlusconi is wary of taking the formal step of declaring his government to be in crisis because such a move could require him to submit his resignation to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italy's head of state, who would then guide the process of forming the next government - a process with unpredictable consequences for the premier.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/8e0a4414-ad4a-11d9-ad92-00000e2511c8.html

[Pyro7480]

BTTT

[an italian]

A sad moment...

[ValenB4]

Not surprising. As much as I like Berlusconi, he hasn't turned the economy around. And he never should have gone into Iraq. I wish him bona fortuna.

[an italian]

I wish "buona fortuna" to the whole my country!