(ANSA) - Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said on Wednesday that Silvio Berlusconi could be replaced as leader of the centre right if other coalition parties fare better than the premier's Forza Italia in next year's elections.
Fini, who is also deputy premier and heads the rightist National Alliance (AN), said in a radio interview that if AN or the centrist UDC party won more votes than Forza Italia, then "it will be up to the coalition together with the president of the Republic to decide who should be premier."
"If the centre right wins the elections but for example the UDC does better than Forza Italia, (House Speaker and UDC heavyweight Pierferdinando) Casini could say, 'Why shouldn't I be premier?' And the same goes for me," Fini said.
But he was also careful to defend Berlusconi's leadership record, saying that "Berlusconi is someone you either like or dislike. He is a man who divides public opinion but he is also a man who represented the majority of this country."
Berlusconi, who is trailing opposition leader Romano Prodi in the opinion polls, heads a four-party coalition consisting of Forza Italia, AN, the UDC and the devolutionist Northern League. In the last elections, Forza Italia was confirmed as Italy's biggest party with 29% of the vote while AN was the
next largest centre-right party with 12%.
But support for Forza Italia has dwindled and in regional elections last April - a key test of government popularity with 42 million eligible to vote - the party made its worst ever showing, taking just 18.4% of the vote.
Fini's party, which traces its roots back to Fascism, also suffered a drop, from 12% to 10.5%.
But a recent poll indicated that the suave, 53-year-old Fini stood a better chance than Berlusconi of narrowing the opposition's lead. The independent survey said that if Fini were to run instead of the 69-year-old billionaire media magnate, the centre right would gain 45% and the opposition 50%.
But if Berlusconi stands for re-election, the centre right would fall to 40% and the opposition would rise to 54%, the poll said. The centre right has ruled out a change of leader before the elections, rejecting proposals to follow the opposition's example and hold 'primaries' to decide the issue.
The UDC in particular had questioned Berlusconi's leadership, arguing that another leader would boost the centre right's chances. UDC chief Marco Follini quit earlier this month after failing to convince allies that Berlusconi should be challenged.
FINI BACKS PR ELECTORAL REFORM
Follini also left in protest at the government's controversial last-minute bid to reintroduce proportional representation (PR). While firmly in favour of PR, Follini criticised the way the government was pushing the bill through parliament and the total absence of opposition involvement in the reform debate.
Fini confirmed his backing of the reforms on Wednesday, stressing that tying the leadership issue to party election performance was a logical consequence of bringing back PR. AN has in the past been a staunch opponent of PR, defending a two-bloc political system as the key to greater stability in a country famed for its 'revolving' door governments.
Italy's current electoral system allocates 25% of parliamentary seats by PR and the rest with a
first-past-the-post system based on constituencies. The government's electoral reform bill, which has been approved by the House and is now awaiting a green light from the Senate, would introduce an entirely proportional system.
The centre left heatedly opposes the reforms, saying they are designed to boost the centre right's prospects and that voting rules should not be changed so close to next April's general elections.
It also says such important reforms require the consensus of both sides in parliament and stresses that the new system would go against a 1993 public referendum in which Italians voted to abolish PR. Many political analysts agree the reforms could reduce the seats won by the multi-party opposition because parties obtaining less than 2% would not gain representation and their votes would not go towards their alliance's overall tally. There are six parties in the opposition coalition
which might not exceed the 2% threshold.But the government argues that the reforms will make the electoral system more democratic and that the power of various parties will be more faithfully represented in parliament.
Fini rejected criticism on Wednesday that the electoral reform came too close to the elections.
"When you change electoral laws, you always do so towards the end of a legislature, never at the start," he said.
