Italy's president challenges opponents to impeachment

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Monday challenged his opponents to impeach him, after an MP accused him of "betraying the constitution."

In a statement issued by his office, Napolitano dared Maurizio Bianconi, who belongs to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party, to act by the Italian constitution, which allows a member of parliament to impeach the head of state if he has acted wrong.
"Otherwise, his (Bianconi's) claims are only unmotivated insinuations and unlawful pressure like other arbitrary interpretations and judgment on the President's position and thoughts," said the statement.

Bianconi, in an earlier interview with a Berlusconi family-run newspaper, accused the president of "betraying the constitution" by rejecting an early election, which is strongly supported by Berlusconi in an attempt to quickly solve the political crisis triggered by his split with former ally -- House Speaker Gianfranco Fini.

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Following the split, Berlusconi no longer enjoys a stable majority in the House. Last week the premier warned that in September he will present a strategic document on which he will put a vote of confidence, aimed at testing who's on his side. The premier said he was ready to face early elections if he lost.

Napolitano triggered an upheaval on Friday when he claimed he would do everything he could to avoid calling on early elections, because it would jeopardize the country's weak economic growth. The president stressed that a caretaker government should be the best solution.
But Berlusconi's party is against a technical, temporary government that would guide the country up to the end of the current legislature, due in 2013.

The institutional challenge put forward by the head of state is thus symbolic of the deep state of political turmoil Italy is facing and of the risk of a bitter confrontation between the supreme powers of the state -- the president, the prime minister and the parliament.

Napolitano has always maintained a low profile in the quarrels between Berlusconi and his former ally Fini, repeatedly inviting them to tune down the bickering for the country's sake. But the situation has run out of control when Berlusconi decided to oust Fini from the People of Freedom Party.

According to the Italian constitution, the head of state is not responsible for the actions committed during his mandate with the exception of betrayal and attack to the constitution. So far in Italian history only one president has faced a request of impeachment by MPs.