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Berlusconi will resign, form new government
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-20 21:56

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday he would step down but pledged to form a fresh government immediately with a new platform — an attempt to strengthen a coalition that has been weakened by electoral defeat and concerns over a slow economy.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, right, and Deputy Premier Gianfranco Fini at a mass dedicated to Pope John Paul II, in Rome, Friday April 1, 2005. [AP]

His announcement at the Senate will bring to an end Italy's longest-serving government since World War II. He had been under pressure to resign since a stinging defeat at regional elections held this month across Italy.

"The regional elections showed a clear sign of discomfort, I want to give an adequate political response," Berlusconi told senators.

He said he would offer his resignation to Italy's president later Wednesday, but added he was confident a new government would relaunch the center-right coalition.

Once a government resigns, it's up to the Italian president to designate a candidate to try to form a new government. The president is likely to choose Berlusconi.

Berlusconi has been struggling to hold his 4-year-old government together, and a senior coalition partner threatened Tuesday to quit the government.

The National Alliance party said it would still support the center-right coalition, but that the continued participation of its ministers "depends solely on what Berlusconi will say and do."

The party's ministers had prepared letters of resignation and its leaders were preparing to meet following Berlusconi's address to parliament.

The National Alliance is the coalition's second-largest party after Berlusconi's own party. There was little chance that the government could have survived if the party's five ministers — including Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini — had resigned.

The political turmoil was triggered by a crushing defeat in the April 3-4 regional elections. The billionaire media mogul's popularity has fallen amid sluggish economic growth and Italy's unpopular military mission in Iraq.

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