Thursday, January 31, 2002

Anti-Berlusconi coalition dissolves

A rift over party leadership splits the Ulivo group

While Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, rewrites history in an interview to Le Figaro, the opposition that should keep him in check quietly implodes. Francesco Rutelli, the leader of the Ulivo coalition which opposes Berlusconi, refused to step down from hir role as Secretary of the Margherita, one of the parties which belongs to the Ulivo . Earlier in the week, the Democrats of the Left - the most prominent members of the Ulivo coalition - had asked Rutelli to give up either the leadership of the coalition or the leadership of the Margherita, on the grounds that he cannot favour one party over the others.

The rift within the opposition comes after an internal coup placed Margherita front-bencher Lamberto Dini on the European Convention, while delegate-designate Massimo D'Alema, President of the Democrats of the Left, was left empty-handed.

Although the Ulivo was all but crushed in the latest general election, Berlusconi's embarrassing missteps - from the failure to resolve the conflict of interests over his control of Italian TV networks to the attempt to block the introduction of an Europe-wide arrest warrant for financial crimes - have provided the opposition with ample chance to rebuild its political credibility. But the Ulivo leaders are too busy squabbling among themselves to even notice - let alone seize - the opportunity.