Silvio Berlusconi told a Forza
Italia (FI) meeting that his opposition centre-right party would
be looking to find allies after coming third in Sunday's
European elections with under 17% of the vote, but not at all
costs.
"We have to construct a coalition, but not at once and not
with everyone," three-time premier Berlusconi said.
"With the Northern League, yes".
The comments seem to suggest that a rapprochement with
Berlusconi's former heir apparent, Interior Minister Angelino
Alfano, is not coming in the near future.
Alfano led a group of centre-right moderates who split
with Berlusconi last year and formed a splinter group, the New
Centre Left (NCD), after disagreeing with the ex-premier's
attempt to bring down the coalition government of Enrico Letta.
The executive survived after Berlusconi's centre-right
FI party pulled its support thanks to the backing of the NCD,
although in February Letta was unseated by Premier Matteo Renzi,
his colleague in the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
Berlusconi's party has been allied with the Northern
League, which won 6% of the vote in the European elections, for
most of last two decades.
But new League chief Matteo Salvini has been critical of
Berlusconi and recently said he did not see the party linking up
with FI at the moment.
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