'Pained' Verdini presents Berlusconi splinter group (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, July 29 - Denis Verdini said he was "pained" on Wednesday as he presented a new parliamentary group in the Senate after splitting from Silvio Berlusconi's opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party. Verdini was previously one of three-time premier Berlusconi's closest and most loyal aides. But he and a group of followers have left FI amid differences over, among other things, Berlusconi dropping his support for Premier Matteo Renzi's bill to overhaul Italy's slow, costly political machinery. Verdini helped Berlusconi negotiate the reform package, featuring a transformation of the Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives with limited powers.
    Berlusconi dropped his support for the so-called Boschi bill, named after Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi, and for a separate overhaul of the election system after Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) had President Sergio Mattarella elected head of State against his will early this year. "We were at ease within the group but we do not renege on anything," Verdini said. "The split, like any split, was painful and hurt. When you don't see eye-to-eye, no one dies.
    "I have great loyalty for Berlusconi, but we see things differently. "The Boschi bill should be approved as it is".
    The possibility that Verdini's group could help the government pass some measures has caused unease within the PD, with former PD Lower House whip Roberto Speranza saying it was the stuff of a "horror film".