New defections threaten Berlusconi's Forza Italia with weeks to go before regional elections

Published May 21, 2015

Silvio Berlusconi is battling to keep his Forza Italia party together after recent high-profile defections have left his camp scrambling to show a united front ahead of May regional elections.

The fissures are the latest blow to the three-time premier, who despite some recent legal victories has been unable to reboot Forza Italia and bring it out of fourth place in the polls, with about 12-13 percent of the vote.

First, longtime Berlusconi loyalist Sandro Bondi quit the party. Then Saturday, Berlusconi's candidate for Puglia's governor defected to a dissident faction headed by another onetime ally, Raffaele Fitto.

In a blistering blog post Saturday, Fitto said some 9 million Forza Italia voters were "fleeing" because "we are in a party without a serious and credible political line."

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