Premier Romano Prodi and opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi are preparing for a fresh tussle, this time over plans to reform Italy's conflicts-of-interest law.
The centre-left premier, who narrowly defeated Berlusconi in the April general election, made it clear this weekend that he would not be daunted by opposition outcry and would stick to his campaign pledge to introduce tougher legislation.
Prodi said on Sunday that the government would draw up a "good, transparent and straightforward law" that would be "in line with those in other democratic countries".
"The rest will be up to parliament," he said.
"It won't be aimed at Berlusconi - it will be in the interests of Italians," added the former European Commission chief, who plans to have the bill proposal ready for parliamentary debate by mid-September. But the opposition immediately accused Prodi of trying to eliminate his political opponent, a billionaire media magnate who owns nationwide private TV network Mediaset.
Since his entry into politics in 1993, Berlusconi has been dogged by criticism, both at home and abroad, for his dual role as prominent businessman and key politician. His family holding company Fininvest is an unlisted group worth an estimated 12 billion dollars.
Mediaset is the jewel in the Fininvest crown but other prized assets include Italy's largest publishing house Mondadori, the financial services group Mediolanum, the AC Milan Serie A soccer club, the Medusa film production company, a key share of the Blockbuster Italia video chain and the Spanish TV group Telecinco. The centre left was strongly criticised by its own
supporters for failing to pass conflicts-of-interest legislation when it was in power from 1996-2001.
A law was subsequently passed by Berlusconi's coalition in July 2004 which allowed the then-premier to retain ownership of his companies providing he did not manage them himself.
Under the law, government officials are barred from holding management or operative roles in major private companies but not from owning them.
It affects all politicians involved in government, from the premier to undersecretaries.
Italy's Antitrust Authority has the task of monitoringthe work of ministers to see that their acts do not benefit their own companies but no sanctions are foreseen against ministers who do not obey the rules. Parliament can however approve a motion of 'political censure' against government members in breach of the law.
The centre left wanted much tougher rules, with a system which would make ownership of companies automatically incompatible with government and oblige politicians such as Berlusconi to sell their businesses or put them in a 'blind trust'.
It is not yet clear how the government intends to revise the law but it is reported to be considering such stringent measures at both central and local government levels. Mediaset chief Fedele Confalonieri on Saturday accused Prodi of targeting Berlusconi and trying to dismantle his business empire.
"Hands off Mediaset," said Confalonieri, a long-time friend and aide of Berlusconi.
"The dismantling of his TV network risks becoming Berlusconi's Piazzale Loreto (the Milan piazza where Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was hung up by his heels in 1945 after being executed by partisans)," he said. "Thousands of jobs are at risk," he added.
Isabella Bertolini, a top member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, said on Monday: "The government is using this dictatorial made-to-measure bill, masked as a conflicts-of-interest bill, to banish Berlusconi from politics".
Political observers speculate that Berlusconi could benefit from Prodi's wafer-thin election win, arguing that the premier's narrow majority will prevent him from passing legislation perceived as damaging to the opposition chief's interests.
But Prodi also faces a difficult task in keeping his own disparate, nine-party coalition united over the reform.
Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, who heads the centrist UDEUR party, has questioned the haste to reform the law and has called for collaboration with the opposition. "It seems a bit untimely to deal with this issue now. Besides, we will need to tackle it with the help of the opposition otherwise we simply won't have the numbers to get it approved," the minister said on Sunday.
But hard leftists in the governing alliance say a new law must be passed as soon as possible and that the government must not allow itself to be "intimidated" by the opposition.
The Italian Communists' Party said that "we must not be put off by the opposition's aggressive tones on a reform which is crucial to the proper functioning of a modern democracy".
"We must not repeat our mistakes," said the party, referring to the centre left's past failure to pass a law.
The Italy of Values party, headed by former public prosecutor and Infrastructure Minister Antonio Di Pietro, agreed that the reform was urgent and said that "clear rules" were needed in the case of political candidates who owned or worked in media organisations.
