On February 13th a meeting of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) passed what amounted to a motion of no confidence in the prime minister, Enrico Letta (pictured), himself a member of the PD.
And 27.5% would vote for the PdL compared with 26% for Mr Letta's Democratic Party PDD) and 19% for the Five Star movement led by Beppe Grillo, a comedian who has taken to politics.The vote in the Senate on whether to kick out Mr Berlusconi represents an unenviable dilemma for the PD.
Mr Monti could steal votes from the PdL, which is in danger of breaking apart despite Mr Berlusconi's return and from the moderate wing of the PD.
On December 8th a popular vote will decide who takes over the leadership of the PD.
After that was rejected by its coalition partner, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), his representatives announced that they would boycott a meeting with the PD and the third party in the coalition scheduled for July 10th.Mr Letta's left-right coalition has never looked more endangered.
The goal was to dispel, for PD rebels, any risk of bringing down the government, allowing the maximum expression of PD discontent.
On January 26th Mr Bersani called off a national assembly due the next weekend after claims that the winner of a ballot to choose the PD candidate for mayor in Naples had been helped by local organised crime (with Chinese immigrants paid €5, about $7, a vote).
The PD lost Liguria largely because votes went to a candidate sponsored by one of Mr Renzi's defeated rivals for the leadership, who had resigned from the party in protest at the government's policies.The new governor of Liguria is Silvio Berlusconi's latest protégé, Giovanni Toti, a former executive of his Mediaset TV empire.
The leader of a PD group that visited the site on January 23rd said he found "people crowded together in the rain, dormitories with three or four times the number who should be there and an infirmary in which the injured are piled up together".The day after his visit, hundreds of detainees broke out of the camp and joined local people demonstrating against the government's plan.
If PD senators are as principled as the president, the autumn will be even hotter than the scorching summer.
Francesco Rutelli, a former prime ministerial candidate who helped found the PD and led its more centrist wing, accused Mr Bersani of offering "the ways of the past".
