Italian Prime Minister Resigns but Plans to Form New Cabinet

Italy’s longest-lasting government since World War II collapsed Wednesday when Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned. But the beleaguered Italian leader vowed to regroup immediately and hold on to power.

Reeling from poor local election results, a sluggish economy and protests over Italy’s involvement in the war in Iraq, the Berlusconi government has been in crisis for weeks. A parade of coalition partners abandoned Berlusconi and demanded fresh elections.

The prime minister, a billionaire businessman and media tycoon, hopes to avoid elections by forming a new government.

“I am confident this difficult moment can be overcome,” Berlusconi said in an appearance at Parliament, shortly before he went to the Quirinale Palace, where President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi accepted his resignation.

Berlusconi said he intended to form a new government that would include most of the coalition partners who have ruled with him for the last four years.

Under Italy’s arcane political system, a prime minister may have to resign and be reappointed to make major changes in the Cabinet. In past decades, governments came and went at a brisk pace, sometimes lasting no more than several months. Berlusconi had prided himself on having broken the pattern.

The crisis was precipitated by feuding among Berlusconi’s three coalition allies. Two parties, the right-wing National Alliance and the more moderate Union of Christian Democrats, are scornful of what they see as favors granted to the xenophobic Northern League, which is demanding greater regional autonomy.

Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, of the National Alliance, threatened last week to quit the government unless Berlusconi reversed policies that Fini said neglected Italy’s poorer south.

Larger issues also loom.

The Italian economy is one of the slowest growing in Europe, and unemployment is high, especially in the south. Italians are also losing patience with Berlusconi’s having sent 3,000 troops to Iraq to join U.S. forces.

Berlusconi was clearly disappointed at failing to become the first postwar Italian leader to complete the constitutionally mandated five-year term.

“With your confidence and your support, we have written important pages in our country’s history,” he told Parliament’s upper house.

“With your confidence and your support, I am sure we will write many more.”

Berlusconi needs to resolve his current problems if he wants to prevail in national elections due next spring.