Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said today the country would have to go to the polls by the end of the year if his troubled centre-right government loses a confidence motion next month.
Mr Berlusconi no longer enjoys a guaranteed majority in parliament since a dramatic split with his former ally Gianfranco Fini, the powerful lower house speaker who commands the support of 34 deputies and 10 senators.
The prime minister intends to call a confidence vote when parliament resumes in September, challenging his conservative rivals either to fall into line or push the country into elections which would otherwise not be due until 2013.
If Mr Berlusconi loses the confidence motion on a five-point programme of measures from tax reform to justice issues, president Giorgio Napolitano would either appoint an interim government or call an election.
The prime minister said a snap poll would be the only realistic possibility.
"I do not think there would be any alternative for the good of the country," he told reporters after a meeting with senior leaders from his People of Freedom party in Rome.
Asked whether the election would have to be held by the end of the year, he said: "Absolutely, yes. Anything else would be wasting time."
He said surveys he had seen indicated the People of Freedom and its coalition partners in the Northern League could expect to win more than 50 per cent support.
It remains unclear whether Mr Fini's supporters will vote against the government in the confidence motion, although their public comments suggest they would be unwilling to trigger an early election.
Italo Bocchino, one of Fini's main lieutenants, told the newspaper La Repubblica that his group would vote with the centre-right majority on a confidence motion.
"We will back him because we have a commitment to the voters," he said in an interview published today.
After a rancorous period last month, the summer lull provided a break in hostilities, with the rival camps reduced to a sour exchange of jibes and accusations through the media, but Mr Berlusconi's declaration has opened a new phase in the battle.
The long-standing rivalry between the two leading figures of the Italian centre right has come to a head over a series of corruption scandals, which forced two ministers and a junior minister to resign.
Mr Fini has used his position as speaker of the lower house to keep up a barrage of criticism as one Berlusconi ally after another has come under pressure from investigating magistrates.
His attitude has enraged Mr Berlusconi, and few believe that a reconciliation is possible.
Reuters