. >> to get the latest from rome, joined from the tal jan capital by john hooper. john, this is a coalition that abrings together unlikely bedfellows. can it hold? can it sphere italy into calmer waters? >> in the short-term, i think it can. its life speck tansy -- expeck tansy will determine whether the two parties can work together. the first is the center-left democratic party. in the short term, they won't have any progress in bringing down one of their number. but in the longer term, there is a problem. this party is very disunited. it has been tearing itself to pieces in recent weeks, particularly over the presidential election. the other party is silvio berlusconi's freedom movement. how long is he prepared to go on supporting this government before creating a new union. >> and how much influence will ber scopey have on this new government? >> i think the two things are very much connected. if the prime minister tries to keep him out of the decision making too much, he might well pull the plug. i think if he has a situation, too are, in which he has a lot of