Italian president reprimands Berlusconi's party over resignation threats

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ROME, Sept. 26 -- Political instability still spirals on Thursday in Italy, as President Giorgio Napolitano issued a severe reprimand to Silvio Berlusconi's party after mass resignation threats.

"I would have participated in today's conference if yesterday there had not been a sudden political development that it is institutionally disturbing", said Napolitano after cancelling his attendance at a political conference scheduled on Thursday in Rome.

On Wednesday evening, the MPs of Berlusconi's party - People of Freedom Party (PDL) - had renewed the threats to resign if their leader was expelled from the Parliament after his conviction for tax-fraud, upheld by the Supreme Court in August.

"I can only define as unsettling the announce of mass resignation of all MPs of PDL - especially if meant to apply an extreme pressure on the Head of the State and force an early dissolution of the Parliament,"said the president.

Napolitano expressed thus his worries that the legal problems of Berlusconi - former premier and leader of the center-right bloc - would further undermine the functionality of the Parliament and the stability of the government.

So far the rebuke of the president didn't seem to stop the PDL, which kept gathering MPs' signatures of resignation.

A special Senate Commission is due to meet on October 4th to vote on Berlusconi's banishment from Parliament. The vote will be a strong signal indeed, but not the decisive one. The issue will have to pass before the Senate Assembly afterwards, since Berlusconi - as Senate's member - can be expelled only with the vote of the full upper house.

The markets have reacted nervously to this further signal of Italy's instability: the FTSE Mib index lowered on Thursday and the borrowing costs on benchmarks 10-year-bond rose.

• Berlusconi loses final appeal in landmark case
• Italian Supreme Court confirms Berlusconi's jail verdict
• Final appeals trial for Berlusconi's guilty tax fraud begins
• Berlusconi sentenced to seven years in sex trial
• Berlusconi's conviction sparks fears for stability of Italian gov't

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