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Italy's Berlusconi forms new government
Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi formed a new government on Saturday, presenting a list of ministers to Italy's president. He was to be sworn in later in the day. Berlusconi received a mandate to govern during a meeting Friday with President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, only two days after he quit as prime minister in a power struggle with his coalition allies. With his reconstituted government, the Italian media magnate hopes to improve his sagging popularity and remain in power until the next election, due in mid-2006. After a meeting at the presidential palace on Saturday, Berlusconi presented his Cabinet, saying he would keep Gianfranco Fini, head of the right-wing National Alliance party, as his foreign minister, and that he had chosen former Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti as deputy premier. The government was to be sworn in at 6 p.m. (noon EDT), said Gaetano Gifuni, an official at the president's Quirinale Palace. |
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