Rome - Members of the PDL party of right-wing former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi announced on Saturday their intention to split off and form a new party.
PDL deputy leader Angelino Alfano was quoted by the Ansa news agency as saying he and a group of PDL parliamentarians loyal to him would not attend a Saturday party conference, at which Berlusconi is expected to return the party to its previous name of Forza Italia (Go, Italy).
Earlier in the week, Berlusconi vowed in a published interview that he would not bow out of politics even if he were to be kicked out of parliament because of a tax fraud conviction.
Berlusconi's ouster is seen as likely because the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), the PDL's main coalition partner, has no intention of letting the scandal-prone politician keep his parliamentary seat.
Despite urgings by Alfano to continue supporting the grand coalition government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta, Berlusconi said he would not accept his own “political assassination.”
The Alfano splinter party is to be called Nuovo centrodestra (New Centre Right) and is composed of between 56 and 60 parliamentarians. Assuming this group backed Letta, it would be large enough to ensure the survival of the prime minister's government. - Sapa-dpa