Rome - The Marxist leader Mr Fausto Bertinotti has kept Italy's centre-left government walking on a tightrope ever since helping it to power 17 months ago. Yesterday the 57-year-old leader of the Communist Refoundation once more held the government's survival in his hands as he met the Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, for a last-minute attempt to resolve differences on the 1998 budget.
Mr Bertinotti, a former senior trade unionist, has made opposition to the government's deficit-cutting measures his greatest ideological battle-cry since helping to install Italy's first leftist government in 50 years.