Berlusconi comes out fighting after election tirade

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi came out fighting yesterday, a day after launching a blistering pre-election attack on his adversaries which even a member of his ruling coalition dubbed embarrassing.

Addressing a conference organised by employers' group Confindustria on Saturday, Mr Berlusconi cast aside the agreed question and answer format and launched into a verbal assault on the left, the press and his opponents in the business community.

"I think when the Prime Minister goes to someone's house he should respect the rules," said Agriculture Minister Gianni Alemanno of the right-wing National Alliance (AN) party, adding he was "embarrassed" by the outburst.

However, others said Mr Berlusconi's performance would revive his showing in the polls.

AN leader and Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini called Mr Berlusconi's performance "a moment of truth" and another centre-right figure, president of the Lombardy region Roberto Formigoni, said Mr Berlusconi was finally showing his true colours.

"When Berlusconi is Berlusconi he is really effective, (his performance) will shake things up because grey conformism turns people away from politics and this country needs political passion."

Mr Berlusconi kept up his aggressive tones in a television interview yesterday, capitalising on anti-globalisation street violence by youths in Milan a week ago to brand the opposition "shop window-breakers" and promising to create more jobs and put more women in government.

On Saturday, Mr Berlusconi railed against industrialists who had sided with the opposition and attacked Confindustria's radio station and Italy's top five newspapers, naming them one by one, for backing the left and fabricating an economic crisis.

"Where is the crisis? It is the left and their newspapers that are inventing a crisis that does not exist in order to get to power!" he cried.