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Followers of former ally Gianfranco Fini resign to put more pressure on PM before next month's no-confidence vote
Ministers loyal to Silvio Berlusconi's former ally Gianfranco Fini resigned from the Italian government today, taking the embattled media tycoon and his conservative administration a step closer to a do-or-die vote in parliament.
Fini, a former neofascist who split away from the prime minister in July, warned last week that his followers would pull out unless Berlusconi agreed to resign and clear the way for a new government with a revised programme. Instead, the prime minister announced at the weekend that he would only go if forced to do so by a defeat in parliament.
Two no-confidence motions have been tabled by leftwing and centrist MPs, and it is expected they will be put to a vote in the first half of December, once parliament has approved next year's budget. Italy has so far dodged the problems endured by other heavily indebted European economies, but politicians of all stripes are keen not to alarm the markets by letting the public accounts fall prey to party manoeuvring.
Since Fini's defection Berlusconi has continued to enjoy a majority in the upper house, the senate, but not in the chamber of deputies. He told a conference of his party on Saturday that if he was defeated in the lower house he would ask the president to dissolve only that chamber and call what in effect would be half of a general election.
"Obviously, it is a prerogative of the head of state, but it is technically possible," said Enrico La Loggia, a constitutional expert and Berlusconi senator.
Today's resignations removed from government a minister, a deputy minister and two junior ministers. Paradoxically, their departures strengthen Berlusconi's position because he now has four tempting positions with which to lure opposition politicians over to his side.
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