Berlusconi rules out coalition with Monti
Ex-premier calls outgoing successor 'flash in the pan'
30 January, 19:13
(ANSA) - Rome, January 30 - Former Italian premier Silvio
Berlusconi on Wednesday ruled out forging a post-election
alliance with outgoing Premier Mario Monti.
"Monti will be a flash in the pan of Italian politics. For
our part we do not see any possibility of collaborating with
him" or others from the centrist bloc, he said.
Last week Monti said his centrist reform coalition might
make a post-election deal with Berlusconi's People of Freedom
(PdL) party, but only without Berlusconi.He said a deal was possible not only with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), currently ahead in the polls, but also with the centre-right PdL.
But any "collaboration" with the centre right, he said, would have to come after it has got rid of the cork that blocks reforms".
The outgoing premier, who presents himself as an alternative to left and right, has in the past said similar things about the centre left, asking it to drop an alliance with the leftwing and allegedly anti-reform SEL party.
Berlusconi, for his part, said employers' association Confindustria was "disappointed" by Monti's platform because it would allegedly continue an austerity drive that has pushed Italy into recession, and claimed he had the Catholic vote sewn up.
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