Berlusconi party threatens parliamentary ‘guerrilla warfare’

(ANSA) – Rome, October 24 – The Lower House whip for Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party threatened parliamentary “guerrilla warfare” Thursday if the newly elected head of the Italian parliament’s anti-mafia commission does not resign.

The PdL is furious that Premier Enrico Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) managed to get one of its senior members, Rosy Bindi, elected as chair of the commission despite fierce opposition from the centre-right group.

The PD and the PdL have been in a fragile, fractious alliance since April, when Letta’s grand-coalition government was sworn in to end two months of deadlock after February’s general election failed to produce a clear winner.

“An intolerable rupture took place in the anti-mafia committee, a rupture that comes with costs,” PdL House whip Renato Brunetta said after a meeting of party lawmakers. The former civil service minister reportedly said at the meeting that the PdL would hamper the work of the government and parliament until Bindi resigns, threatening “guerrilla warfare”.

Berlusconi tried to bring down Letta’s government at the start of this month but he was forced into a U-turn after pro-government members of the PdL said they would not vote against Letta’s executive in a confidence vote. photo: PdL House whip Renato Brunetta

View the original article here