Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi announced a new alliance Monday with the Northern League and, as part of the deal, said he could let someone else become prime minister.
"Habemus Papam," Berlusconi told RTL 102.5 radio, borrowing Vatican terminology to announce the election of a new pope, to announce the agreement ahead of local and national elections expected on February 24-25.
Berlusconi's People of Freedom party (PDL) is trailing in the polls, but the deal gives him a boost in the northern regions and denies an overall parliamentary majority to his front-running centre-left rivals.
Under the terms of the agreement, Berlusconi said, the PDL will support Northern League leader Roberto Maroni in his bid to become president of Lombardy, the region around Milan.
The League agreed to be part of the national centre-right coalition led by Berlusconi. The party had resisted the deal because it did not want the three-time prime minister to bid again for high office.
Instead, PDL secretary Angelino Alfano "could be our prime ministerial candidate and I can be the economy minister," Berlusconi said. The 76-year-old media mogul has changed his mind several times over the past months.
The Northern League has an anti-immigration, anti-European Union stance and wants more autonomy for Italy's wealthier northern regions. It has been an on-and-off ally of Berlusconi since he entered politics in 1994.
The two sides fell out last year over Mario Monti, the technocrat who replaced Berlusconi and introduced sweeping austerity measures to tackle a financial crisis. The League opposed him from the start, while the PDL supported him until December.
The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Sunday that Berlusconi's camp - Northern League included - was scoring 26-28 per cent in polls, an improvement since December, but still far behind the almost 40 per cent attributed to the centre-left.
Monti, who has entered the race as the leader of a centrist coalition, was said to be on 14-15 per cent, while the protest Five Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo was attracting 13-14 per cent of voters, the Milan-based daily said.