Berlusconi deepens confusion by staying on as premier

POLITICAL confusion deepened in Rome last night when Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi contradicted earlier expectations that he was about to resign and form a new government by saying he had not stepped down.

Mr Berlusconi had been expected to make the move to strengthen his conservative coalition.

After an earlier emergency meeting of coalition leaders in Rome, Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said Mr Berlusconi would resign. The offer was expected to come when Mr Berlusconi met President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi last evening.

But after meeting the president, Mr Berlusconi said he had not resigned.

Mr Berlusconi was quoted as saying he would explain the situation in parliament, but it was unclear when he would do so.

The confusion immediately prompted outrage from the opposition centre-left.

Piero Fassino, leader of the Democratic Party of the Left, spoke of “a crisis that is being transformed into an indecent farce.”

Mr Berlusconi had been under pressure from his allies to resign since the coalition lost 11 of the 13 regions that were up for grabs in elections on April 3 and 4. Last week, a key centrist party headed by deputy premier Marco Follini pulled its ministers out of the Cabinet and demanded that Mr Berlusconi form a fresh government with a new platform.

Resigning and immediately forming a new government is a tactic that has been used often by Italian premiers to strengthen faltering coalitions.