Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday said he
was not ruling out the possibility that his opposition
centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party could join the alliance
supporting Premier Matteo Renzi's coalition government after
this month's European elections.
"We'll have to see what happens with the economy. I don't
exclude the possibility that we could be together to take the
decisions for the good of the country," Berlusconi told the
Radio Anch'io radio station.
Berlusconi's party was part of the weak left-right
grand-coalition government that was led by Enrico Letta after
last year's inconclusive general election.
But after causing a series of crises for the
administration, Berlusconi finally pulled his support for it in
November, just before being ejected from parliament after a
definitive tax-fraud conviction.
Letta executive's survived thanks to the defections from
Berlusconi's party of a number of centre-right moderates led by
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, who formed the New Centre
Right (NCD) group.
Renzi, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD),
unseated Letta in February to become Italy's youngest premier at
39 at the helm of the same coalition his party colleague had.
Berlusconi has frequently praised the energetic,
media-friendly Renzi and is backing the current government's
drive to change the Constitution to revamp the country's costly,
slow-moving political machinery, albeit with frequent criticism.
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