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Berlusconi ally dangles threat of early elections
Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:59am EDT
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By Deepa Babington
ROME (Reuters) - A powerful ally of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has dangled the threat of early elections unless the coalition toes a hard line on immigration, raising the stakes after a week of infighting in the government.
Berlusconi appears unlikely to lose his grip on power anytime soon as his government commands control of both houses of parliament and he remains popular despite scandals over his womanizing and hosting parties attended by escorts.
But the scandals have still weakened Berlusconi politically and the anti-immigrant Northern League's open reference to elections points to widening cracks within the coalition as his two top allies spar publicly over immigration.
League chief Umberto Bossi this week lambasted the other top government partner and lower house speaker Gianfranco Fini as committing political "suicide" by backing voting rights for legal immigrants.
Fini, a former neo-fascist who has now moved closer to the center, retorted that denying rights to immigrants was "suicide of reason and Christian compassion."
That provoked Bossi's poll threat.
"Luckily the League is very strong in parliament and everyone is forced to follow us," said Bossi, who brought down Berlusconi's first government in 1994 by withdrawing support.
"And even our allies must say yes, because if the League does not give its vote to big projects, they would not be able to go ahead. And then yes, one would head toward elections," Bossi told a conference late on Saturday.
Bossi said he did not want elections, and wanted his reform agenda pushed through instead.
SHIFTING ALLIANCES
The comments capped a week of heightened tensions within the ruling coalition, after the Berlusconi family newspaper Il Giornale accused Fini of flirting with the opposition while Fini publicly bickered with Berlusconi over internal party problems.
Some commentators see the latest sparring as part of positioning before an eventual battle to succeed Berlusconi, who has alienated the Catholic Church and seen his popularity slip to about 50 percent amid the furor over his private life.
Fini, who merged his post-fascist National Alliance party with Berlusconi's earlier this year, has often been considered the media mogul's political heir.
But Fini's appearance on Saturday at the centrist UDC party conference set off speculation that he may quit Berlusconi's coalition to join forces with UDC leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, who stands to pick up some of the disillusioned Catholic vote.
Center-left politician Francesco Retell further fanned speculation by enigmatically responding "We'll see" when asked if he would join Fini and Casini to form a new centrist bloc. Continued...
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