Silvio Berlusconi to Angelino Alfano:
Let me be clear: I won't pay alimony to you!
On November 16 in Rome, Silvio Berlusconi hosted a convention to mark the dissolution of the People of Freedom party (PDL) and the rebirth of Forza Italia, the party he created at the start of his political career in 1994 and disbanded in 2009, the same year his wife Veronica filed for divorce.
Deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano and over 60 PDL MPs and ministers — who already saved the coalition government of Enrico Letta in a confidence vote in October — have decided not to join in the Cavaliere's latest venture, which Alfano has described as "extremist", instead opting to create a new moderate conservative party called New Italian Centreright (NCD).
The split of one of the coalition's main pillars has renewed fears about Italy's political stability. If Forza Italia switches to the opposition after the Senate vote on Berlusconi's expulsion, scheduled for November 27th, the government's majority in the upper chamber will be reduced to a handful of votes.
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