A golden opportunity

The split of Silvio Berlusconi's party could boost the governing coalition

T WAS meant to be a christening, but it turned into a funeral. On November 16th Silvio Berlusconi, a media tycoon, rebranded his party, the People of Freedom (PdL). Henceforth it will be Forza Italia (Come on Italy), the name of his political vehicle before 2007 when he merged it with the more right-wing National Alliance to form the PdL. But the much-vaunted rebirth provided the occasion for a split. A faction loyal to the interior minister, Angelino Alfano, stayed away from the relaunch congress. And on the same day Mr Alfano, once the billionaire businessman's designated successor, announced a new group in parliament called the New Centre Right (NCD). This looks as if it will evolve into a separate party.

Cohabitation between the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), to which Mr Letta belongs, and the NCD may never be easy. But the government will be able to get on with its job now without having to worry that Mr Berlusconi might at any moment pull the rug from under it. That threat had already receded: Mr Alfano and his fellow-rebels blocked an attempt by Mr Berlusconi last month to destroy the coalition. The formation of the NCD makes the threat even more remote. All the PdL's ministers joined the rebellion, pushing Mr Berlusconi and his reborn Forza Italia into opposition alongside the Northern League and the maverick Five Star Movement of Beppe Grillo, a comedian.

Mr Berlusconi launched his failed coup last month in retaliation for what he sees as the PD's refusal to prevent his expulsion from parliament following his conviction for tax fraud in August. The senate is expected to vote for his ejection on November 27th. Disagreements over his fate are not, however, the only reasons for the split in the PdL. The rebels tend to be closer to the centre. And they are impatient with Mr Berlusconi's autocratic style of leadership.

That was also the reason for the last big split on the Italian right. In 2010 a previous Berlusconi lieutenant, Gianfranco Fini, stormed out of the PdL to form his own party. He and his followers have since been reduced to virtual irrelevance, a point the television magnate made forcefully to Mr Alfano in the gruelling negotiations that failed to prevent the latest split. But there are differences between the two revolts. Mr Alfano's followers in parliament are more numerous: 30 in the 321-member senate and 27 in the 630-seat chamber of deputies. And whereas Mr Fini led his disciples into the wilderness of opposition, Mr Alfano is assuring his of a place in the governing majority, if not the government.

His rebellion poses the intriguing question of whether, as Mr Berlusconi reportedly fears, Italy's newly fortified coalition might be the basis for something more ambitious. Since the early 1990s, when Italy began experimenting with bipartisan politics as an alternative to the broadly based coalitions that had governed Italy for the previous 40-odd years, some have insisted that the country is inherently unsuited to two-party democracy and would benefit from a powerful centre party. Mr Alfano and Mr Letta, who are on good personal terms, both emerged from Democrazia Cristiana, the old Christian Democratic Party, which spanned the middle of the political spectrum and dominated Italy's post-war politics.

Much will now depend on the achievements of their coalition and on whether it can reignite economic growth. And for that, the government will need more courage than moderation.