Centre-left leader Matteo Renzi, expected to form Italy’s next government this week, must overhaul one of the eurozone’s most troubled economies without an electoral mandate and while awkwardly sharing power with a centre-right rival.

Italian centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi promised to support prime minister Enrico Letta in a confidence vote yesterday, staging a U-turn only days after he provoked a crisis by pulling his ministers out of the government.

Italian prime minister Enrico Letta was meeting the president last night to try to chart a way out of a deep political crisis after Silvio Berlusconi pulled his ministers out of the government and called for new elections.

Italy’s fractious ruling coalition struggled to bridge differences over a housing tax that threatens to create a new crisis for a government already severely strained by the legal turmoil surrounding Silvio Berlusconi.