Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s third term as was in crisis on Friday after one of his main allies and 33 members of parliament (MPs) deserted him, stripping his party of its parliamentary majority.
The move by the supporters of Gianfranco Fini to set up a new group cuts the number of Freedom People party MPs to just above 300, short of the 316 required for a majority, meaning that on some controversial policy issues the prime minister may no longer have his way.
Fini, the former post-fascist turned liberal conservative who co-founded the Freedom People party with Berlusconi but who has fallen out with the prime minister, notably over ethics within the party, said his group would only vote with the government if measures proposed upheld the party’s electoral promises and “the general interest.”
Berlusconi and his aides were putting a brave face on the defection last night, promising to retain government ministers loyal to Fini, and thereby see out the administration’s term through to 2013.
However, the split was a serious blow to Berlusconi, who has been under siege since revelations last year that he hosted parties attended by a prostitute, and more recently by a wave of corruption scandals. “It’s always difficult to say for how long artificial respiration can last, but the government is no more,” said Pier Luigi Bersani of the opposition Democratic party. “He can’t think it is August and everything will end up with wine and roses.”
“Berlusconi emerges substantially weakened from this row,” said Alessandro Campi, a professor of political science at Perugia university. “The government will have serious problems if it has to negotiate the passing of every law in the coming months.”
Fini has been in a dispute with Berlusconi for months over issues ranging from immigration to the prime minister’s attempt to restrict the use of police wiretaps and punish journalists who publish transcripts of them.
After Berlusconi issued a statement on Thursday describing Fini’s views as “absolutely incompatible with the founding principles” of the party, Fini fought back in a hastily called press conference.
“Last night, in two-and-a-half hours, without being able to give my views, I was effectively expelled from the party I helped found,” he said.
Explaining his rift with Berlusconi, Fini said the party’s defense of scandal-hit members of the government “too often meant an expectation of impunity.”
Fini added that he was fighting for legality “in the fullest sense of the word, that is fighting crime as the government is meritoriously doing, but also public ethics, sense of state and playing by the rules.”
Fini also railed at Berlusconi’s bid to force him to resign his post as speaker in the lower house.
Among the supporters of Fini who have joined the new parliamentary group, called Future and Freedom for Italy, are Italian European Affairs minister Andrea Ronchi and deputy Giulia Buongiorno, a lawyer who gained notoriety defending former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti against mafia charges and Italian student Raffaele Sollecito against charges of murdering British student Meredith Kercher.
As chairwoman of the lower house justice commission, Buongiorno has been instrumental in battling Berlusconi’s wiretapping clampdown, which will now be voted on after the summer break.
“With the wiretap vote coming up in the autumn, Berlusconi has got a month to find 10 or so deputies,” said James Walston, a political analyst at the American University of Rome. “He will be going on a shopping spree with the Union of Christian Democrats [UDC] in his sights.”
The small UDC party is led by Pier Ferdinando Casini, a former Berlusconi ally.
Alessandro Campi traced the break-up between Fini and Berlusconi to a shouting match the two had at a conference in April, which culminated in Fini demanding “What will you do? Get rid of me?”
“Berlusconi probably never forgave Fini for challenging him in public,” he said.
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