Mr Berlusconi has also had difficulties with his finance minister over the need to rein in the budget, and failed to appoint for months a replacement for an industry minister who had been hounded out amid scandal. Critically, he has vacillated. The prime minister, who has faced numerous probes for corruption, tax evasion and fraud, has in the past ignored any uproar while seeming selfishly to use parliament and the legislature to further the causes of his business and his associates.