Rival Fini issues scathing attack on Italian prime minister

Fini’s speech at the rally in Milan was broadcast on Italian television

Italy’s speaker of parliament, a former ally of Silvio Berlusconi, has launched a scathing attack on the embattled Italian prime minister at the founding congress of his new opposition party.

"You can’t consider yourself above the law and feel that you have absolute impunity,” Gianfranco Fini told the congress in Milan, as Berlusconi fights off numerous allegations related to corruption and prostitution scandals.

"You can’t appeal to popular sovereignty and election by the people as a shield and armour,” said Fini, adding that the prime minister’s resignation and early elections would be a "splendid” although unlikely prospect.

Fini broke away from the ruling coalition last year along with dozens of lawmakers and set up a new movement called Future and Freedom for Italy.

His defection precipitated a confidence vote on Berlusconi in December that was won by the PM by just three votes.

Berlusconi came under renewed pressure last month after prosecutors announced they had opened an investigation against him on charges of having sex with a 17-year-old prostitute and then trying to cover up the crime.

"We have become the laughing stock of the Western world,” Fini said in an apparent reference to the scandal, as thousands of women took to the streets of Italy’s biggest cities in anti-Berlusconi protests yesterday.

Fini also called for an early general election next year before the government’s current mandate runs out in 2013. But he said there should first be an overhaul of the electoral system and a federalist reform in Italy.

"Let’s do these two big reforms and then we can think about going to vote in the spring of next year ... let’s vote to give Italians a new Italy,” he said.