On June 13th, his Forza Italia party lost a sixth of its voters in the European elections.

ECONOMIST: Silvio Berlusconi is cornered by his coalition allies

Mr Berlusconi said earlier his Forza Italia party had a mandate to lead until 2006 and it would do so.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | Berlusconi given cabinet mandate

The Northern League tends to share the enthusiasm for free-market reforms of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, while the former neo-fascists, unsurprisingly, favour strong state intervention.

ECONOMIST: Is Berlusconi’s luck running out? | The