Letta says 'good sense' for ministers to forgo from rallies
Premier wants language based on 'mutual frankness, respect'
13 May, 13:20
(see related stories on Letta cabinet retreat)
(ANSA) - Rome, May 13 - Premier Enrico Letta said Monday
that stopping ministers from taking part in electoral rallies or
televised debates not connected with their portfolios was a
sensible way to prevent tensions within his left-right
government exploding.Letta and members of his centre-left Democratic Party are unhappy that ministers from Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) party took part in a demonstration in Brescia on Saturday against alleged persecution by some magistrates of the 76-year-old ex-premier.
The rally, which included the participation of Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, was called after a Milan court failed to overturn a four-year conviction Berlusconi was handed for fraud at his media empire. "It's a decision of good sense to resolve the problems that exist and which cannot be solved with a magic wand. We need rules," said Letta at the end of a 24-hour retreat with his ministers at a former abbey in Tuscany. He added that the new government "should do a job that is based as much as possible on a language of frankness and reciprocal respect".
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