Italy's new government led by technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti will govern until next parliamentary elections scheduled for 2013 but neither he nor his ministers will run as candidates when elections are held, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Sunday.
"We asked him and all his ministers to commit themselves publicly not to present themselves as candidates at the next elections," Berlusconi said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Monti, an ex-EU commissioner, was appointed as Italy's prime minister on November 16 after the resignation of the 75-year-old Berlusconi, who stepped down after parliament approved new austerity measures demanded by the European Union to help trim Italy's massive 1.9-trillion-euro debt.
Berlusconi who is leader of the center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party, which holds the biggest representation in parliament, warned, however, that if Monti took measures that were against the line of the parties supporting him, in particular a possible wealth tax, he would be unable to go forward.
