PADDY AGNEW
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi last night finally bowed to the inevitable, offering to resign just as soon as his government's austerity budget is approved by parliament, probably late next week.
Thus, after spending almost a year doing a passable impression of King Canute as he defiantly refused to acknowledge a tidal flow of negative developments, the 75-year-old media tycoon has accepted that, at least for now, he should "step back".
This may not, however, be the end for Mr Berlusconi since he may still be tempted to contest the early general election that could be the outcome of his retirement yesterday. That "call", however, will be made by President Giorgio Napolitano and not by Mr Berlusconi.
As expected, earlier in the day Mr Berlusconi had registered a Pyrrhic victory in the Italian parliament when his centre-right majority ratified the 2010 State Accounts Bill in a ballot in which all the opposition parties and some of Mr Berlusconi's own deputies did not take part.
The result was that, while the government won the vote by 308 to nil, this was eight votes short of parliament's absolute majority of 316.
With close Berlusconi advisers, such as cabinet minister Renato Brunetta, immediately suggesting that there was no constitutional requirement for the government to have the absolute majority in parliament, it was not clear just what Mr Berlusconi intended to do next.
However, after a 45-minute meeting with Mr Napolitano, the prime minister finally appeared to accept the inevitable.
"The prime minister made it clear to the president that he was fully aware of the implications of today's vote in the House.
"At the same time he expressed his concern about the urgent need to give a swift response to the requirements of our EU partners with the approval of the Stability Law (Austerity Budget)...
"Once that Bill has been approved, then the prime minister will remit his mandate to the head of state," said a note from the president's office.
Had Mr Berlusconi not offered to resign, then he would almost certainly have been defeated next week on the austerity budget. Given that he has finally decided to "step back", it now seems likely that the budget will pass more or less unopposed, leading to his resignation.
Mr Napolitano's communique last night said that, immediately following Mr Berlusconi's resignation, he will instigate consultations with all the political parties, including both the opposition and "those which won a parliamentary majority in 2008". In practice, Italy now faces two possibilities – an early election next spring or a caretaker "institutional" administration that would run through to 2013 under the leadership of someone like the former European commissioner, Mario Monti.
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