Berlusconi set to form new government
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-22 14:13

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was set to form a new government amid a crisis that forced his resignation and raised the specter of snap elections.

Berlusconi, who resigned Thursday to end Italy's longest-running government since World War II, has apparently reached a deal with two key coalition partners -- the centrist UDC and the right-wing National Alliance -- after a heavy defeat in regional elections early this month.

The 68-year-old prime minister told reporters that the new cabinet list would be ready Friday evening after hinting that the four coalition parties had difficulties agreeing a balance of power in the new administration, which he said would not be "a photocopy" of the previous one.

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pulls at his collar during a Senate session in Rome April 20, 2005. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi began talks with Italy's political leaders to try to assemble a new government that Berlusconi, who resigned as prime minister, is again expected to lead. [Reuters]

"We are working and we will see what we manage to do. Certainly, we have to maintain a balance in the group between the various components of the coalition," he told reporters in Rome late Thursday.

The parties wanted him to quit as a prelude to forming a new revamped government with revised policies in response to the poll debacle.

They also want to curb the influence of the Northern League in any future administration, principally by removing the party from control of the reform portfolio.

"I think that there's an awareness that the coalition must consolidate and proceed united, otherwise we will not win the confidence of Italians," said Berlusconi, whose House of Freedoms coalition swept to power in 2001 but has since suffered a series of setbacks in European, regional and local polls.

Berlusconi spoke late Thursday after a day of crisis talks with key allies in his outgoing centre-right coalition in a bid to bounce back after his resignation and form a new government with the same majority.

The centre-right coalition lost six of eight regions it controlled prior to the April 3-4 regional elections, which many saw as a dress rehearsal for a parliamentary vote slated for next year.

Meanwhile, Italy's President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was engaged in consultations with the full spectrum of Italy's political leaders to avert snap elections.

They included the centre-left Union opposition leader Romano Prodi, who called for early elections after his meeting with Ciampi.

"We expressed our deep concerns about the economy and Italian policy," said Prodi, who led a delegation of centre-left party leaders.

"The government's resignation is the natural consequence of Italian votes and must be a signal for radical change," Prodi said.

Ciampi's consultations began in the early morning with the speakers of both houses of parliament and will end with a meeting with representatives of Berlusconi's own Forza Italia party on Friday morning.

By then, the composition of Berlusconi's next government -- to carry him through to elections slated for the first half of next year -- should have been agreed with the same coalition partners as in his outgoing administration.

Berlusconi met the leaders of his three coalition partners throughout the day.

AN leader Gianfranco Fini, the outgoing foreign minister, had "cordial and constructive" talks with the prime minister for around an hour, his party said.

Berlusconi also had a 45-minute meeting with his Reform Minister Roberto Calderoli of the Northern League, amid growing speculation that the key to his survival lay in convincing the League to give up the post.

The reform portfolio is vital to the League which wants greater federalism to distance Italy's rich north from its ever-struggling southern regions.

"The fact that the ministry for reform exists has a great symbolic value for us which we intend to keep; reform is our DNA," said Calderoli after the meeting.

Ciampi has asked Berlusconi to remain on as prime minister in the meantime to avoid a power-vacuum at the top, while Berlusconi sounds out the new blood who will form his next cabinet, already being dubbed Berlusconi II by Italy's media.

"I have them in my mind, but not in my hand," said the prime minister, suggesting further negotiations ahead.

With his mandate due to last until May next year, the media magnate failed to achieve a cherished goal of leading the country's first-ever full-term government.

He nonetheless succeeded in leading, for more than 1,400 days, the longest-serving Italian government since a republic replaced the monarchy in 1948.

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