Calls for new Italian electoral law by October

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Sunday warned that the collapse of his government would undermine economic recovery and anger voters after local media reported centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi was poised to pull the plug on the executive, Reuters reported. Italian newspapers said Berlusconi, who was convicted of tax fraud earlier this month, would bring down the government in October if he is expelled from the Senate - a measure the court ruling foresees but which requires a parliamentary vote to enact. Berlusconi's People of Liberty (PDL) party and Letta's Democratic Party (PD) joined forces in an awkward right-left coalition in April to break a stalemate that followed February's inconclusive national election. The former rival parties have often been at loggerheads in the four months they have governed together. Now they are locked in a dispute over cancelling a hated property levy by the end of the month, two weeks before the next payment of the tax is due. The PDL says the government's survival depends on it.