ITALY: The ailing head of Italy's populist Northern League party, Mr Umberto Bossi, resigned as reforms minister yesterday, dealing a fresh blow to Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi's increasingly fragile government.
Mr Bossi's move follows weeks of in-fighting within Mr Berlusconi's coalition and the recent ousting of Economy Minister Mr Giulio Tremonti, who is considered close to the League party.
It also comes after months of uncertainty over Mr Bossi's health. The League's founder has been in hospital since March, when he suffered heart failure, and still needs 24-hour care.
The League confirmed its loyalty to Mr Berlusconi after a party meeting in Milan yesterday, but raised the stakes by warning of "difficult days" ahead for the three-year-old government.
The first test of the League's loyalty will come later this week when parliament is called to vote on pension reform - the issue that pushed the League to bring down Mr Berlusconi's 1994 government after only seven months.
Party firebrands have hinted that they might vote against the law unless they receive a commitment that coalition allies will back the League's drive to transfer significant new administrative powers to Italy's regions.
The crisis engulfing Mr Berlusconi's government was sparked by European elections in June when his Forza Italia party lost ground to its three coalition partners.
Buoyed by the result, they began demanding a greater say in policy-making.
Besides quitting the cabinet, Mr Bossi also decided to abandon the national parliament in Rome and focus his energies instead on the European Parliament in Strasbourg and on party affairs.
Some commentators read the move as a convenient exit for the 62-year-old leader, whose health may not allow him to confront the daily rigours of the Italian political jungle.
"The League's ministers will stay in the government and will keep their word even in the face of obvious betrayal by their allies," the party said in a statement yesterday, referring to the recent government turmoil that cost Mr Tremonti his job.