EN
25 March 2013 - 10:40 AMT

Berlusconi demands coalition with center-left or new vote

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi repeated on Monday, March 25, that center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani must go into coalition with his center-right group or Italy should hold a new vote after last month's deadlocked election, according to Reuters.

Democratic Party leader Bersani, whose alliance won a majority in the lower house of parliament but not in the Senate, is in talks with parties this week to see if he can form a government. He has so far rejected the idea of going into coalition with the centre-right group led by Berlusconi's People of Freedom party.

"Either the Democratic Party…does the reasonable thing and opens to a government with the People of Freedom…or the only thing to do is return to vote as soon as possible," Berlusconi said in an interview on his own Canale 5 television.