Silvio Berlusconi News

Italian Prime Minister-designate Enrico Letta has informed the country's president that he can form a new coalition government, Reuters has reported.

Mr Letta met President Giorgio Napolitano to confirm his centre-left Democratic Party will align in power with centre-right forces dominated by Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party.

Mr Berlusconi has confirmed he would not be a minister in the new cabinet.

Read: Is austerity hitting the buffers? Don't tell the Germans

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• Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has received a one-year sentence after being convicted of the illegal publication of wiretaps.

• It relates to a conversation relating to a 2005 banking scandal between a political opponent, Piero Fassino, the head of the former centre-left Democratic Left (DS) party, and Giovanni Consorte, the former chairman of Unipol, an association of insurers.

• Details of the confidential phone call were published in Il Giornale, a conservative newspaper owned by Mr Berlusconi's brother Paolo. He has been sentenced to two years and three months.
• Berlusconi, who has denied any wrongdoing, can seek to have the decision overturned before a court of appeal.

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Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to a one-year jail term for his involvement in the illegal publication of wiretaps.

Mr Berlusconi allegedly made public the contents of a confidential phone call in a case related to a 2005 banking scandal in his brother Paolo Berlusconi's newspaper Il Giornale.

Berlusconi, who has denied any wrongdoing, can seek to have the decision overturned before a court of appeal.

Under Italian law, he is not expected to serve any prison term until all possible appeal trials have been carried out.

His brother has received a sentence of two years and three months.

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The cost of borrowing money in Italy's government has risen considerably today as the stock market has fallen.

The same thing has happened to Spain and this indicates how one crisis so quickly spreads to another.

One of the flaws in the structure of the Euro is that you have national democracies where the will of the people is supposed to decide policy and yet when you are tied to other countries by a single currency you cannot just go your own way.

If a country threatens to go its own way it could potentially do serious damage to all of those around you.

That's why we are hearing political voices all over Europe saying to the Italian people they cannot have their own policies if you are going to stay in the Euro.

A senior aide to Chancellor Merkel today warned that the Eurozone crisis may come back after we thought we left the crisis a long time ago.

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The man who is likely to be Italy's next Prime Minister for a short time at least, Pier Luigi Bersani, gave a very downbeat speech today.

He said that although they came first in the Italian election, they didn't win it.

There's a similar downbeat mood across Europe, where apart from telling Italians they must stick with their programme whatever their people say, there's a realisation this could affect them all.

A senior aide to Chancellor Merkel says that the financial crisis in Europe may come roaring back.

We well remember what happened when Greece rejected austerity, and although Italy's much bigger, the implications could be that much worse.

Read: More on the Italian election which ended in a political stalemate.

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Italy's centre-left political leader, Pier Luigi Bersani has appealed to the country's parliament to resolve the political deadlock which has left the Italian people without a ruling party.

Bersani's party defeated former Italian Prime Minister and centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi to gain the most seats in the election at the weekend, but failed to gain the Senate - which is necessary to legislate.

The Democratic Party (PD) proposes basic austerity reforms in government and could now try to form a "grand coalition" with Berlusconi or Beppe Grillo - who stunned the country by securing a quarter of the vote on Monday.

Talks between the main parties continued today and are set to resume on Wednesday.

Read: ITV News' Europe Editor James Mates' take on the Italian election.

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Italy's public and private sector institutions owe nearly $50bn to British banks, figures reveal.

The statistics detail Italy's debt to the UK banking sector as the country remains in a political deadlock with no party securing an overall majority in the country's election.

Britain's banks' external exposure stood at $2.7 trillion in June last year, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

Italy's current debt to the UK is less than the $66bn the country owed at the end of 2010.

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The former TV comic whose anti-establishment "non-party" won more votes than any other single party in Italy's deadlocked election has showed no early signs of wanting to negotiate for power.

Beppe Grillo's 5-Star Movement collected almost 8.7 million votes overall, a tally which only trailed the multi-group blocs of the centre-left and centre-right.

Commentators said all his adversaries underestimated the appeal of a grassroots movement that found particular favour with young jobless Italians and others weary with Prime Minister Mario Monti's internationally-endorsed austerity agenda.

Mr Grillo, who mixes fierce attacks on corruption with policies that range from clean energy to free internet, surged in the final weeks of the campaign as hundreds of thousands turned up at his outspoken rallies.

Watch: ITV News' Europe Editor James Mates reports on the shock emergence of the Five Star comic.

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