Centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio Berlusconi on Friday accused the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) of "continuing only to fling mud at us" by saying a State-Mafia talks verdict should force his main ally, Matteo Salvini's rightwing populist League, to ditch him.
According to prosecutor Nino Di Matteo, the verdict on talks aimed at stopping a Cosa Nostra bombing campaign showed that Berlusconi's top aide Marcello Dell'Utri, now serving seven years for mafia ties, was the go-between who relayed the Mob's requests to the 1994 Berlusconi-led government.
Berlusconi said: "I am sure that the Italians understand very well the difference between those who, like us, are seeking solutions for the government of the country and those who, on the other hand, continue only to fling mud at us and demonise us".
Berlusconi added that an executive with the M5S was "impossible".
He said FI had agreed to talks involving the M5S out of a sense of responsibility, talks which "worried us very much" and which ended in the conclusion that a government with the M5S was not "to be desired, or possible".
He again called for a centre-right government to get needed votes in parliament on its programme. FI said it was ready to sue Di Matteo for slander. "Forza Italia rejects with indignation all attempts to link, against logic and evidence, the name of Berlusconi to the affair of the State-Mafia talks," whose trial ended Friday with the conviction of Dell'Utri and others. It accused Di Matteo of being an "assiduous participant" at events staged by the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and said his charges against the ex-premier were "of an unprecedented gravity"".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
