ROME — Silvio Berlusconi repeated a demand on Monday to be included in any new Italian government, but there was no sign his center-left rival would renege on a promise not to ally with the tycoon as a way out of political stalemate. Pier Luigi Bersani — asked by the president to try to form a coalition after a February election that gave him a majority in the lower house but not in the Senate — has ruled out an alliance with the media baron's People of Freedom (PDL). But Bersani's Democratic Party (PD) has few other options, leaving the euro zone's third biggest economy in a political limbo that is a danger for the whole currency bloc, badly shaken by near melt-down in Cyprus. Berlusconi said the PD should allow his party to choose a successor to 87-year-old President Giorgio Napolitano, a left-winger whose term ends on May 15 — another aspect of Berlusconi's offer which is unappealing to Bersani. “The line is clear, either the PD changes its ideas and makes itself available for a government with the PDL to get the economy moving again and declares it is prepared to elect a moderate to the presidency or we go back and vote,” Berlusconi said. — Reuters
