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M. Continuo

Italy's Bersani again refuses coalition with centre-right


    ROME (Reuters) - Italian centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani restated his refusal to form a grand coalition with the centre-right bloc led by Silvio Berlusconi, saying on Tuesday that a cross-party government would not be credible.

    Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party has repeatedly called for the centre-left to form a coalition government with them, but the former prime minister is politically toxic to his traditional rivals.

    Bersani said a so-called "governissimo", with the centre-left, PDL, and the centrist Civic Choice group, "would be in our opinion the wrong solution to the needs of the country".

    He also rejected the centre-right's call for new elections and to be allowed to pick the next president to succeed President Giorgio Napolitano, whose term ends in May.

    (Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; editing by James Mackenzie)