Berlusconi quashes early election talk
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
12 Oct. 2009 - Silvio Berlusconi speaking to the Italian Business Confederation, Confindustria, MOnza, Italy. (Livio Anticoli - www.governo.it)
Italy’s prime minister moved last night to dampen a growing chorus of voices – from within his own coalition as well as the opposition – calling for snap elections.
Silvio Berlusconi’s scandal-hit private life, his apparent attempt to bring in reform of the justice system to protect himself from criminal investigations, his support for a mafia-linked candidate in Campania’s regional poll plus internal divisions over immigration policy, had led to rumours of a split in the coalition.
On Tuesday it seemed as though Mr Berlusconi might be ready to take the plunge and call snap elections when Senate speaker Renato Schifani alluded to a vote.
Yet the premier yesterday confounded his opponents again stating, “The thought had never crossed my mind.” For Mr Berlusconi the so-called internal divisions merely underlined his party’s strengths due to its ability for “internal discussion and its capacity for ideas”. He made his oft-repeated mantra to journalists that he has “a mandate to govern for five years”.
Opinion polls initially showed support for prime minister Silvio Berlusconi remained untainted by the revelations of his alleged relationship with a showgirl from Bari as well as the seemingly debauched nature of house parties at the PM’s Sardinian villa over the summer.
Recent political events, however, seem to have turned the tide against the Cavaliere (‘the Knight’ the nickname given to Mr Berlusconi by the Italian media) and led to a drop in public support.
Gianfranco Fini, Berlusconi’s partner in the ruling PdL party, and speaker of the Camera, has been unequivocal in his displeasure at Nicola Cosentino’s candidacy for governor of Campania, not least since Cosentino’s indictment for alleged mafia links with the region’s brutal Camorra criminal organisation. Fini is also at odds with the PdL’s coalition partner, Lega Nord, over its hardline anti-immigration stance. The house speaker was also less than 100 percent supportive of Silvio Berlusconi’s attempt to win immunity from prosecution in the law courts when a Bill absolving top state officials (president, prime minister, speakers of the upper and lower houses of parliament) failed to make it onto the statute books.
