ROME (Reuters) - Snap Italian elections could be held as early as the autumn as a result of a break-up between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a key ex-ally, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Wednesday.
Lower house speaker Gianfranco Fini, who split with Berlusconi last week, allowed the prime minister to escape a full-blown showdown on Wednesday by letting a junior minister survive a confidence motion in parliament.
But Fini’s supporters showed their strength by abstaining in the vote, making clear that they had enough votes to bring the government down if they chose to oppose it.
Maroni, of the Northern League which is now Berlusconi’s main coalition partner, said the two-year-old government was "sailing without a compass" after last week’s rupture.
The political turmoil comes at a time when financial markets are nervous about whether the government will be strong enough to implement a 25-billion euro ($33-billion) austerity package approved in parliament last week to rein in the deficit.
Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti sounded a note of reassurance about the impact of the ruckus on Italy’s finances.
"The political crisis, if it happens, will not have an impact on Italy’s public accounts," he told Reuters. He also ruled out the need for more budget measures in the autumn.
Fini, a co-founder of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party (PDL), has set up a break-away faction in parliament that could deprive Berlusconi of his majority.
The no-confidence motion against junior justice minister Giacomo Caliendo failed by 70 votes. Fini’s backers abstained along with members of three smaller parties, totalling 75 votes, proving that they could have cost the government its majority. Caliendo is under investigation, accused of belonging to a secret group that tried to influence the appointments of judges. He has denied all wrongdoing.
AUTUMN POLLS?
The traditional summer parliamentary break is expected to bring a truce until September but after that, the situation remains extremely unclear. Italian elections have traditionally been held in the spring or early summer but Maroni said there was nothing to stop the country voting sooner.
"If the ship hits the rocks, we go back to the polls," Maroni told Corriere della Sera daily. "I know there are no precedents of holding elections in the autumn, but they should not be ruled out in the face of a serious political crisis."
Maroni also repeated the Northern League’s opposition to any possible move by President Giorgio Napolitano to try to identify a new parliamentary configuration as the basis for an interim government to manage business until elections due in 2013.
Berlusconi is also said to favour early polls if he does not have enough backing in parliament.
If a government resigns and Italy’s president fails to find someone who can form another one, he can dissolve parliament and call early elections – usually held about two months later.
