Italy's upcoming general elections might have to be postponed to accommodate a tiny party initially excluded from the race, outgoing Interior Minister Giuliano Amato warned on Wednesday, sending the country's leading politicians into a spin.
Amato referred to a Tuesday ruling by the Council of State, Italy's top administrative court, which upheld the right of the centrist Christian Democracy party (DC) led by Giuseppe Pizza to take part in the April 13-14 elections.
The Interior Ministry subsequently said it was moving to have the court's decision overturned on the grounds that the election process was already under way and would take the case up with the Supreme Court.
The DC had initially been barred by the Interior Ministry because of its symbol, which is similar to that of a larger centrist rival.
The Council of State's decision could force a delay in the elections because all parties are lawfully entitled to 30 days of campaigning.
But some experts on the Constitution argued that the elections could not be postponed because they had to be held within 70 days of parliament's dissolution, and hence on April 16 at the latest.
The main election contenders, former premier Silvio Berlusconi and ex-Rome mayor Walter Veltroni, both called for the ballot to go ahead as planned.
Centre-right chief Berlusconi, who is bidding for his third term as premier, said that ''I truly hope the elections won't be postponed because that would be seriously damaging for a country which urgently needs an effective, operational government''.
''I appeal to the DC's sense of responsibility and hope it will give up its claim to the 15 days of campaigning that it has lost,'' said Berlusconi, whose centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) coalition is several points ahead of Veltroni's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in the opinion polls.
Veltroni told reporters: ''I'm totally against a postponement. It's never happened before in the history of this country''.
Stressing that Pizza was an ally of Berlusconi, Veltroni added: ''This is their problem and they need to solve it... Given that they are planning an alliance, it should be possible for them (the PDL) to convince Pizza not to delay the polls''.
Outgoing premier Romano Prodi, whose centre-left government collapsed in January after less than two years in power, said that ''a postponement would put Italy in a very, very bad light with the rest of the world... Everything possible must be done to prevent it''.
Pizza, however, said the government had no choice but to put off the elections in order to respect the party's democratic rights.
''I have absolutely no intention of giving up... We have a right to the same period of campaigning as the others. The Interior Ministry made a mistake and must now take responsibility,'' Pizza said.
The DC also stressed that it had filed suit with a regional administrative appeals court, the TAR, which had yet to rule on the case.
Minister Amato noted that the Supreme Court could be called in to decide whether the TAR had jurisdiction over cases involving the electoral process.
''If the matter takes this direction, then a postponement of the election cannot be excluded,'' Amato concluded.
SQUABBLE OVER SYMBOL.
Meanwhile, the DC said it would continue to fight for exclusive rights to its symbol, a red cross bearing the Latin word Libertas (Freedom) enclosed within a shield.
The so-called Scudo Crociato is a cherished symbol for all centrist, Catholic parties who regard themselves as heirs to the once-dominant Christian Democrat party, which was swept away by corruption scandals in the early 1990s.
The Scudo Crociato is also the symbol of the UDC, the largest of the centrist parties headed by candidate premier Pierferdinando Casini, and another tiny DC party led by Angelo Sandri.
Sandri's formation was excluded from the elections along with Pizza's and is now also seeking recourse against the decision.
