Rome: Italy's Silvio Berlusconi on Sunday said he wanted to resume the "path to government" and was "proud" of his record of government during the financial crisis, a day after resigning as prime minister.
Berlusconi said he was "proud of what we have managed to do in these three and a half years marked by an international crisis without precedents," in a letter sent to a conference of The Right, a small conservative party.
"I share your spirit and I hope to resume together the path to government," he said in reference to the party, which is not represented in Parliament.
He was also scathing about the parliamentary revolt that unseated him after a group of deputies from his centre-right coalition voted against him.
"In the end the logic of petty blackmail and opportunism prevailed -- the oldest vice in Italian politics," said Berlusconi, who is still a member of Parliament from the People of Freedom (PDL) party that he founded.
He said the inclusion of his erstwhile ally Gianfranco Fini, the speaker of Parliament, in his coalition was an "original sin". A former far-right leader, Fini broke from the coalition last year after a row with Berlusconi.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, November 13, 2011, 21:43