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.

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has dropped former allies accused of corruption and mafia association as election candidates, in a bid to shed the image of scandal that has dogged sections of his centre-right party.

ITALY’S opposition said yesterday it would present a no-confidence motion against one of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s most loyal ministers, in another blow for the already wounded premier.