(ANSA) Rome, July 22 - Interior Minister Angelino Alfano
said Tuesday he won't consider mending fences with former
premier Silvio Berlusconi so long as the media mogul is bent on
sabotaging the government's electoral reform bill.
"Forza Italia speaks beautiful words but what we need are
facts," said Alfano, whose conservative New Center Right (NCD)
party splintered from Forza Italia (FI) when he fell out with
Berlusconi over his former political godfather's refusal to
relinquish the leadership of Italy's centre right.
Berlusconi is trying to re-assert his leadership of
conservative forces in Italy after burnishing his sleazy image
by winning an appeal case last week that quashed his conviction
for having sex with an under-age Moroccan prostitute nicknamed
"Ruby the Heartbreaker".
"There is an electoral law under immediate discussion and
we will see if Forza Italia will vote (against) a law to kill
the allies," Alfano added.
"No meeting between me and Silvio Berlusconi is planned --
let's see first how Berlusconi votes on the electoral law,"
Alfano told reporters on the fringes of a Parliamentary
conference.
Alfano also lambasted Berlusconi's allies in the separatist
Northern League, saying "we are not going to sit down at the
negotiating table with a racist, xenophobic and anti-European
right-wing party".
"Our ideas are very clear," Alfano added, "we have chosen
to separate our destiny from that of Forza Italia not just for
judicial reasons, and an acquittal is not enough to unite us".
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