Berlusconi ready for December elections

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he was ready to head to the polls by the end of the year if he lost a confidence vote in September aimed at testing whether he has a majority in Parliament.

“If we don’t obtain the majority’s commitment, there will be no alternatives to a vote by December, since anything later than that would hurt the country,” Mr Berlusconi said after holding a six-hour meeting with his allies in Rome.

Should Mr Berlusconi lose the vote he and his government would resign.

Lawmakers are to vote on a programme that includes tax and justice reforms, federalism, aid to the poorer south of Italy and new measures to curb crime and illegal immigration.

“Should elections take place we would obtain a great result with more than 50 per cent of the vote,” Mr Berlusconi said.

Italy has been gripped by political uncertainty since the end of July, when Mr Berlusconi lost his once-comfortable parliamentary majority after lower house speaker Gianfranco Fini left Mr Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party, ending a 16-year alliance with the billionaire Prime Minister.

Mr Fini’s supporters set up breakaway parliamentary groups of 33 deputies and 10 senators.

If the vote brings down the government, President Giorgio Napolitano will poll parliamentary group leaders on the possibility of forming a transitional government, failing which he will dissolve parliament and call elections.

Mr Berlusconi, 73, handily won elections in 2008, becoming Prime Minister for the third time since 1994.