Berlusconi party leaders rebel over his strategy

Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi appeared to backpedal today in his strategy aimed at collapsing Italy's fragile coalition government and triggering early elections, after some key supporters chafed at his order to quit the Cabinet.
Berlusconi had demanded those resignations in a show of solidarity ahead of a Senate vote to strip him of his seat because of his tax-fraud conviction and prison sentence.
But at least three of his five ministers in Premier Enrico Letta's government, where Berlusconi's Freedom People party is the main partner, said they would only reluctantly comply with that order because Berlusconi had picked them for their ministry posts.

In a rare challenge to Berlusconi's longstanding leadership of his center-right populist movement, the three ministers indicated they might help Letta survive the confidence vote he has called for Parliament to determine if the 5-month-old government can survive.
"I thoroughly understand his (Berlusconi's) state of mind, but I cannot justify or share the strategy" that the ministers quit, said Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin. Another close aide to Berlusconi, Reforms Minister Gaetano Quagliariello, said he would follow his conscience in the confidence vote.
Speaking by telephone to rank-and-file members of his part at a Naples rally, Berlusconi called for "elections as soon as possible" and boasted "we will win." But hours later, he suddenly took a softer tack.

In online comments, Berlusconi said he would continue to back the governing coalition but only to pass specific measures on his party's agenda, namely averting an imminent increase in Italy's sales tax and the elimination of a homeowners' tax due in December.

"We know how to distinguish the real interests of the citizens," Berlusconi said, referring to himself and his lawmakers.
A Cabinet meeting Friday night was supposed to earmark the funds to avert the sales tax increase. But escalating tensions in the coalition over Friday's vote by a Senate committee on Berlusconi's seat dominated the session. The tax hike is set to go into effect on Tuesday.

Italy's top criminal court in August upheld the tax fraud conviction against Berlusconi, in a case dealing with acquisition of film rights for his media empire. It also upheld his four-year prison sentence.