Berlusconi demands to be in government

Silvio Berlusconi yesterday repeated a demand to be included in any Italian government, but there was no sign his centre-left rival would renege on a promise not to ally with the tycoon to avoid political stalemate.

Pier Luigi Bersani — asked by the president to try to form a coalition after a February election that gave him a majority in the lower house but not in the senate — has ruled out an alliance with the media baron’s People of Freedom (PDL).

However, Bersani’s Dem-ocratic Party (PD) has few other options, leaving the eurozone’s third biggest economy in a political limbo that is a danger for the whole currency bloc.