Berlusconi for rightist minority government in Italy

Rome April 27 (IANS/AKI) Billionaire media tycoon and former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday suggested a centre-right minority government could be formed after the inconclusive March 4 national polls.

"We are talking about a government made up of forces that won the election " he told supporters in the northeast city of Trieste ahead of elections due on Sunday in the surrounding Friuli Venezia-Giulia region.

"A government with an extremely concrete three-or-four-point programme that it is committed to implementing during its first 100 days - with the abstention or external support of the (centre-left) Democratic Party " he added.

Earlier on Friday Berlusconi said he was "certain" that his ally Matteo Salvini leader of the far-right League party would not abandon the centre-right alliance after Sunday s regional election as some papers had reported.

The elections in Friuli are expected to strengthen the hand of the League which became the biggest party in the centre-right alliance after it won nearly 18 percent of votes in last month s national ballot compared with less than 14 percent won by Forza Italia.

Italy s President Sergio Mattarella has struggled to form a coalition government since the election led to a hung parliament. No single party or political bloc has a clear majority although the centre-right alliance has the most seats and the populist Five-Star Movement is the biggest party.

Five-Star may start negotiations on coalition government with the Democratic Party after talks on a tie-up between Five-Star and the centre-right collapsed over its leader Luigi Di Maio s refusal to govern with Berlusconi who has a conviction for tax fraud and is on trial for bribery.

--IANS/AKI
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