Berlusconi foes to pull out of government

Rome, Nov 13 (IANS/AKI) Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing rival Gianfranco Fini Monday will pull four ministers of his party from the government, putting the prime minister’s embattled rule on the brink of collapse, according to a Fini loyalist.

Italo Bocchino told Italian state television RAI that Berlusconi will find resignation letters from all Fini’s loyalists on his desk Monday, after he returns from a Group of 20 summit in South Korea.

Berlusconi “needs to go to the head of state and tell him that one of the pillars of his majority no longer supports him and resign”, Bocchino said on weekly talk show “Annozzero”. Bocchino heads Fini’s new party, Future and Liberty for Italy, in the Lower House of Parliament.

Fini last Sunday said he would cause a governmental collapse if Berlusconi didn’t resign and unveil a new programme to boost economic growth in Italy’s poorer southern regions, curb unemployment and enact electoral reform.

Berlusconi booted Fini out of the ruling coalition in July following months of public acrimony between the two former allies. Following his expulsion Fini formed the Future and Freedom splinter group which Sunday was formally launched as a new political party.

Italy’s ruling conservative majority is no longer guaranteed since Fini and his group formally broke with Berlusconi.

–IANS/AKI