Silvio Berlusconi faces party revolt over coalition collapse Silvio Berlusconi has triggered the collapse of Italy's coalition government but in the process he risks breaking apart his own centre-right party just weeks before he is forced from the political frontline following his conviction for tax fraud. "Who is not with me is out," declared a headline in Monday's Il Giornale, a Milan daily owned by the Berlusconi family, as the former prime minister arrived in Rome to ensure party unity ahead of a crucial senate vote expected late on Wednesday. On this story The possibility of an internal revolt against Mr Berlusconi was cited on markets as a factor that limited the backlash for Italian stocks and government bonds on Monday, with hopes rising that the eurozone's third-largest economy would avoid another destabilising election campaign. "We must remain united," Mr Berlusconi told his parliamentarians, warning them to "wash their dirty linen at home," Ansa news agency reported, citing sources at the meeting. Centre-right MPs emerging from the talks gave a confused picture of the party's intentions. Mr Berlusconi was quoted as proposing they support a blitz of fiscal measures on sales and property tax before moving to elections. One senator suggested a more "serene" climate could come from working with Enrico Letta, centre-left prime minister, on such issues. Party talks were to continue on Tuesday. The numbers game has begun in earnest as Mr Letta prepares to address both houses of parliament in a last-ditch effort to keep his government in office after Mr Berlusconi pulled his five ministers out of their five-month-old coalition at the weekend. Mr Letta's Democrats control the lower house but alone they are 54 votes short of an absolute majority in the senate following last February's deadlocked elections. With the likely support of leftist allies, four recently appointed life senators and 20 centrists led by former prime minister Mario Monti, that deficit is reduced to a dozen or so. Mr Letta is openly banking on wooing disaffected members of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party after all five ministers perfunctorily ordered to resign by Mr Berlusconi publicly expressed their misgivings and then slammed Il Giornale for running a front-page editorial that came close to accusing them of betrayal. Italy needed the development of a pro-European centre-right party of moderates, Mr Letta told a television talk show on Sunday night after announcing he would seek a vote of confidence in parliament to avert snap elections. The sense of confusion in the Berlusconi camp is crystallising around the billionaire media magnate's decision last month to relaunch his People of Liberty (PDL) and revert to the old name of Forza Italia that he founded in 1994. But that transition has not been formalised, leading to speculation that "doves" would remain in the PDL while "hawks," who pushed to end the left-right coalition, would join Mr Berlusconi in the relaunched party. Although few doubt Mr Berlusconi's powers of persuasion and his tenacity, the prospect of their 77-year-old leader being banned from holding public office and serving one year under house arrest, or performing community service, has reinforced the sense that the centre-right is entering a post-Berlusconi era. Nonetheless Mr Berlusconi has a formidable record of winning tight votes in parliament, one way or another. In 2010 he engineered the defection of three opposition lawmakers to shore up his own faltering government coalition. "Scilipotism" entered the Italian lexicon thanks to the Sicilian MP of that name who was rewarded for crossing the aisle by being guaranteed a senate seat by Mr Berlusconi last February. Mr Berlusconi is also under investigation for allegedly paying €3m to Sergio de Gregorio, a former senator, to switch sides and help bring down Romano Prodi's centre-left government in 2008. Mr Berlusconi denies the accusations. Still haunted by memories of Mr Prodi's disparate and shortlived coalition, Mr Letta wants a solid majority that will sustain him until at least the second half of next year when Italy assumes the EU's rotating presidency. But he is already under pressure from within his own party to chart a course for elections next spring - after passing the crucial 2014 budget and a new electoral law - if he only manages to scrape through in the senate. Commentators on Monday gave Mr Letta a good chance of pulling through, but the size of his possible majority remains in doubt.