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Berlusconi plans to turn up for work as Italian PM

Italian Center-left leader Romano Prodi and his wife Flavia greet a friend as they leave their home in Bologna to visit relatives in central Italy on Sunday. PHOTO: AP

Still refusing to concede defeat in the Italian general election, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi put on another bravura performance at the weekend by serenading his supporters and then threatening to paralyze the incoming government.

The former cruise ship crooner took to the stage in a hotel restaurant in Trieste in northern Italy, singing a medley of Neapolitan ballads. He also treated his audience, who applauded wildly, to a song he said he had composed in the wake of the election result, in which he talks about going to live on a tropical island.

Afterwards he returned to attacking Romano Prodi, whose center-left camp narrowly won the election two weeks ago and whose victory has been upheld by two Italian courts. Berlusconi said the incoming coalition of nine parties would be unable to govern, adding that he would arrive for work as normal at the prime minister's office when the new parliamentary session opened on Friday.

"The center-left won't be able to govern, they are just passers-by. Without our accord in the senate, not even one provision will pass," he said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the leaders of China, Russia, the US, Argentina, Japan and all of the major European countries have formally telephoned Prodi to offer congratulations. Berlusconi has shrugged off the calls, saying they reflect Italy's good standing on the world stage.

At his home in Bologna on Sunday, Prodi said Berlusconi's refusal to acknowledge that the center-left had won the election was "not my problem, it is his."

He said his coalition would stay united and govern for the next five years.
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