Former Italian prime minister 'is the candidate for premier' says senior PDL member
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will return to frontline politics as the centre-right candidate in next year's general election, according to a senior official in his PDL party.
"Yes, Berlusconi is the candidate for premier," Fabrizio Cicchito, PDL parliamentary leader told Italian news agencies on Thursday after a meeting of the party leadership at Berlusconi's Rome residence.
He said the return of Berlusconi, the undisputed master of a party built entirely around himself, meant there would be no primaries to find a candidate, as had been originally expected.
The revelation follows growing speculation about Berlusconi, who has kept a low profile since he resigned last year in the middle of financial turmoil that risked tipping Italy into a Greek-style debt crisis.
PDL party secretary Angelino Alfano said on Wednesday he was among those pushing the 75-year-old media billionaire to lead the centre right into elections expected early in 2013.
Berlusconi, still on trial over accusations of paying for sex with a teenager, has made no public comment about the growing speculation but may do so at a political rally on Friday. He has given several recent hints that he was planning a return to politics, complaining about his successor Mario Monti's austerity policies and musing openly about the possibility of Italy leaving the euro.
The dominant figure in Italian politics for almost 20 years, he has been embroiled in a constant series of corruption and sex scandals.
Financial markets have been on edge at the prospect of political stalemate that would block more economic reforms after Monti's departure next year and Italy's borrowing costs are again close to the levels they hit when Berlusconi stepped down.
Monti has ruled himself out of the running and opinion polls suggest a centre-left bloc around the Democratic party would win an election, with the PDL fighting the maverick Five Star movement led by former comedian Beppe Grillo for second place.
Hostility to the mainstream parties is running high and Berlusconi's former coalition allies in the Northern League are in disarray after the regional party's founder Umberto Bossi was driven from office by a corruption scandal.
Berlusconi's own party has been in upheaval since losing power, with his hardline loyalists at odds with more mainstream conservatives.
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.guardian.co.uk |
