MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Napolitano warns Berlusconi party against trying to bring down the Italian government

The former PM convicted on fraud evasion: “they can’t beat me in politics; they tarnish my financial and private live”

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano ruled out any reversal of a tax fraud conviction against Silvio Berlusconi and issued a stern warning to his party against trying to bring down the government over the issue.

Napolitano's statement that the law must take its course dashed hopes in Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party that the head of state would find a way to allow the former prime minister to continue his leadership of the centre-right without restriction despite a jail sentence.

The party says that curtailing Berlusconi's political activity would rob the 10 million people who voted for him in February's election of their democratic choice. Several of its leading members had pressed Napolitano to find a way out.

“Any definitive sentence, and the consequent obligation of applying it, cannot but be taken into account,” Napolitano said in a statement, warning against any “fatal” crisis in Enrico Letta's fragile left-right coalition government at a time when Italy is stuck in its worst post-war recession.

Earlier, Berlusconi's oldest daughter Marina, 47, who heads his 6.6 billion Euro business empire flatly, dismissed speculation that she could become the PDL figurehead to run the party while her father was out of circulation.

The Supreme Court this month confirmed a four-year jail sentence - commuted to one year - on Berlusconi for a giant tax fraud at his Mediaset broadcasting empire.

Napolitano noted that Berlusconi would not be expected to go to jail. Because of his age, the billionaire businessman is likely to serve the sentence under house arrest or doing community service.