Berlusconi's ally promises mass protests if caretaker government formed in Italy - People's Daily Online

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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition ally promised on Saturday he would stage mass protests if a caretaker government is formed.

Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League party and Reforms Minister, said the only solution to Italy's political crisis were early elections in autumn, thus ruling out the possibility of a technical, temporary government that would lead the country up to the end of the current legislature scheduled for 2013, local media reported.

"I will make millions of voters demonstrate in the piazzas of northern Italy, together with Berlusconi's supporters," stressed Bossi, assuring that his people would be "extremely angry" with a caretaker government.

Berlusconi's coalition is no longer solid after the rift with his former ally, House Speaker Gianfranco Fini, who decided to found a new group called the Future and Freedom for Italy.

Rather than a slow agony Berlusconi said he preferred early elections, warning that the future of the current government will be decided in September when he will present a 4-point strategic document to the House, on which the premier intends to put a vote of confidence to test the stability of his coalition.

On Friday a political upheaval broke-out when Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano turned down the possibility of an early vote, saying it would jeopardize Italy's weak economic recovery.

Napolitano, recalling that the Italian constitution grants him the supreme power to dissolve parliament and call for early elections, stressed that he would work hard to find a new majority through a caretaker government.

According to Bossi, Berlusconi will exploit the summer break to "make peace" with his former ally Fini in order to reach some kind of parliamentary agreement.

However, the Northern League leader said he was skeptical about the outcomes. "We've reached a point of no return, how can you amend the rift?" he asked.

The electoral base of the Northern League, concentrated in the north of Italy, has widened following the triumph at the 2008 national elections, when the party allied itself with Berlusconi. In April's regional elections Bossi's group gained further consensus, becoming the main leading party in the north of the country.

Today, the union between Bossi and Berlusconi is sound and crucial to the center-right's goal of maintaining its electoral stronghold.

Source: Xinhua