Italian PM to hold confidence vote

Another political crisis looms as five cabinet ministers loyal to Silvio Berlusconi quit

ROME— Italy’s president began talks on Sunday to pull the country out of a new political crisis, attempting to undercut a move a day earlier by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to bring down the government and force new elections only seven months after the last vote.

For the third time since 2011, President Giorgio Napolitano must try to steer Italy out of political chaos.

The latest turmoil was set off on Saturday when five cabinet ministers from Berlusconi’s party suddenly stepped down, leaving the government only formally in place.

The resignations were set off by clashes at a cabinet meeting Friday over an imminent sales tax hike. Tensions have been running high in Prime Minister Gianni Letta’s uneasy coalition of left and right parties ever since Berlusconi, who is a member of Parliament, was convicted of tax fraud last month. Lawmakers must vote on whether to oust him.

Letta, who has been prime minister for only five months, will go before parliament on Wednesday and hold aconfidence vote to verify what is left of his parliamentary backing.

He has a commanding majority in the lower house, and if he can gain support from a few dozen senators among dissenting Berlusconi followers or opposition parties, he could form a new government.

But if he doesn’t find support — and Napolitano does not try to form a transition government — then Italy would quickly find itself back at the polls. In a television interview on Sunday evening, Letta said he sensed there might be rebels within Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party. “I hope that there is a part of the PDL which is not in accord with Berlusconi,” he told RAI television. Over the weekend cracks appeared within Berlusconi’s PDL. While he said he wanted to go straight to elections, other centre-right politicians voiced caution and said Saturday’s resignations were an extreme act. One longtime Berlusconi loyalist, Fabrizio Cicchitto, expressed rare dissent over the way Berlusconi had withdrawn his ministers without party consultation.