Government crisis in Italy escalates

Four members of Italy's centre-right government resigned on Monday. They all belong to the Future and Freedom for Italy party (FLI) led by Gianfranco Fini, who has broken ties with the prime minister. This clearly constitutes a government crisis, the liberal daily Corriere del Ticino writes: "It is undisputable that the prime minister holds the strings in his hands. An unscrupulous prime minister who ... will only step down if the parliament forces him to? That may be. Or he's the opposite, an unabashed and cunning prime minister who pursues his strategy to avoid giving his opponents any satisfaction. And he has a few trumps up his sleeve. ... Only few MPs and senators are willing to go home and make do without their high incomes. ... This is the reason for the personal wooing of the undecided parliamentarians who realise that they must give Berlusconi their vote of confidence if they don't want to jeopardise their own posts."

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