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Interior Minister Angelino
Alfano said Tuesday that he was ready to patch things up with
his former mentor, Silvio Berlusconi.
Alfano used to be Berlusconi's heir apparent to lead the
centre right.
But he split from Berlusconi's party last year and formed
a new group, the New Centre Right (NCD), after scuppering
Berlusconi's attempt to bring down ex-premier Enrico Letta's
coalition government.
The NCD supports the executive of Premier Matteo Renzi,
who replaced his centre-left Democratic Party (PD) colleague
Letta in February, while Berlusconi's Forza Italia is in the
opposition.
Alfano said a reconciliation would be dependant on
Berlusconi not abusing the so-called Nazareno pact he has with
Renzi for a new election law against small parties.
"If Berlusconi does not use the Nazareno pact as an blunt
weapon against the allies, but has vision, wisdom,
long-sightedness and lack of rancour, we are ready to rebuild
the centre right," Alfano said.
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