ROME, July 8 (Reuters) - Coalition infighting, a painful austerity budget and corruption allegations have sent Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's approval ratings spiralling downwards, a poll showed on Thursday, July 8.
The poll in Italy’s leading Corriere della Sera newspaper showed Berlusconi’s approval rating fell to 41 percent from 50 percent about six weeks ago.
The survey by the ISPO research group showed 57 percent of those asked had a negative opinion of Berlusconi’s ability to govern, up from 48 percent in the last week of May.
The survey brought Berlusconi’s popularity to the same low level shown by polls for left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper.
The ISPO poll showed the 73-year-old media magnate’s popularity was suffering from erosion even among traditional supporters of the centre-right. In that category, it fell by seven points over six weeks.
In the past weeks, Berlusconi has been assailed on several fronts by problems that have made his government more vulnerable than it has been since it took office in 2008.
The government has decided to call confidence votes in both houses of parliament to push through a 25-billion-euro austerity budget, which critics say bleeds workers and spares the rich.
The budget, which will include drastic cuts to municipalities and regions, has been a magnet for opposition protests and has divided the centre-right.
Coalition parliamentarians have presented some 1,250 amendments to make it more palatable to local voters but the government has for the most part refused to make substantial changes, saying it is necessary to avoid a Greek-style crisis.
TWO MINISTERS RESIGNED
The latest poll said the fall in popularity was partly due to the saga of Aldo Brancher, a Berlusconi friend on trial over accusations of embezzlement and who Berlusconi appointed in June to be "minister for federalism".
One of Brancher’s first acts as minister was to take advantage of a law giving ministers the right not to attend trials where they are defendants. The move raised suspicions that that was behind the appointment in the first place.
Brancher resigned on Monday, 16 days after he was sworn in.
Berlusconi’s popularity is also under strain over a law limiting the use of wiretaps by police that he wants to push through but is contested by magistrates and journalists.
Berlusconi says the rules are needed to protect privacy. The opposition says his real aim is to stop more leaks of judicial wiretaps that have got him and some ministers into trouble.
Interior Minister Claudio Scajola, a Berlusconi ally, resigned in May after it was found that a constructor arrested in a corruption probe helped pay for a luxury apartment in Rome. The allegations against Scajola surfaced from wiretaps.
Another conflict undermining the government’s stability is a showdown shaping up between Berlusconi and Gianfranco Fini, the speaker of the lower house and co-founder with Berlusconi of the People of Freedom coalition party.
Fini has criticised what he says is a lack of freedom of speech in the party and the two are effectively no longer on speaking terms, a situation commentators say is untenable.
