Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition allies said on Sunday they would stay in his struggling centre-right government for the moment despite two crushing electoral losses in recent weeks, according to Reuters. "This is a moment favourable for the left," Umberto Bossi, leader of the pro-devolution, anti-immigrant Northern League, told a party rally. "We will not be responsible for sending the country to ruin." Berlusconi's coalition is reeling from local election and referendum defeats which have boosted the centre-left opposition and raised speculation that the government could fall apart before its term ends in 2013. Northern League support is vital for the survival of the government, which faces two votes in parliament this week that it must win to be able to carry on. The League has been increasingly at odds with the prime minister's PDL party with ministers openly sniping at one another in the press over issues ranging from tax reforms to League calls to shift government ministries to northern Italy. Speaking in Pontida, the northern town that was birthplace in 1167 of the medieval Lombard League, Bossi called for more power to the regions, cuts to military missions abroad and reforms to lower the tax burden for small firms. "Fiscal pressure has gone past all limits," he said, but stopped short of calling for sweeping tax cuts that could put the badly strained public finances at risk. Ratings agency Moody's on Friday said it may cut Italy's credit ratings because of concerns about its ability to bring down a public debt mountain equivalent to about 120 percent of gross domestic product. -- SPA
