A general rearrangement of Italy's political scene gathered pace on Friday as the two biggest parties on the centre right said they would run on a single ticket in April 13-14 elections.
Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, which won about 24% of the vote in 2006 elections, and Gianfranco Fini's rightwing National Alliance, which won about 12%, are to drop their logos in favour of the new People of Freedom (PDL) slate.
The move comes on the heels of confirmation that the Democratic Party, formed from a merger of the two biggest centre-left parties, has cut its old alliance with the hard left and will run by itself in April.
Berlusconi, who is bidding to be premier for the third time, denied that the People of Freedom slate was a response to the Democratic Party's bold new course, which some analysts say could prove popular with voters.
''This is another step towards a movement uniting all liberal and moderate Italian citizens who don't identify with the Left,'' said Berlusconi.
He and Fini met for three and a half hours on Friday morning to hammer out the details of the new formation, which he said would be closely supported by the devolutionist Northern League, another traditional Berlusconi ally.
''April 13 will see the birth of a great new political force inspired by the values of the European People's Party and hence an alternative to the Left,'' said Fini.
The two leaders, who quarrelled bitterly last November over Berlusconi's push for a fully fledged PDL party, called on other smaller centre-right parties to join the new slate.
The centrist UDC party, which has been part of Berlusconi's centre-right alliance for over a decade, said it would not join the PDL but would probably form a federation with it like the Northern League.
Over in the Democratic Party camp, the move by Berlusconi and Fini was seen as a sign that the centre right was worried by the realignment on the left and was scrambling to offer its voters something similar.
''The earthquake in the centre right is the consequence of the courageous and innovative choice made by the Democratic Party,'' said party no.2 Dario Franceschini.
Referring to his party's decision to turn its back on the longstanding alliance with the hard left, Franceschini said the split was based on a mutual conviction that sprawling coalitions simply didn't work, whether they were on the left or the right.
''It wasn't a divorce but consensual separation,'' he said.
The four most left-wing parties in the coalition left by Romano Prodi are set to run in elections on a single ticket called the Sinistra Arcobaleno (Rainbow Left).
They will field their own candidate for premier, probably outgoing House Speaker Fausto Bertinotti.
Most polls at present see the centre right winning elections by a handsome margin, even if all the centre-left parties were to get back together. Photo: Silvio Berlusconi (right) and Gianfranco Fini.
