VITRIOLIC slanging matches in current-affairs talk-shows on Italian television mirror the country’s politics. It is more turbulent than ever after the supreme court upheld the conviction for tax fraud of Silvio Berlusconi, formerly prime minister. In the eight weeks since the court confirmed a four-year jail sentence (which will in effect be just one year of house arrest or community service), Italians have been subjected to more verbal mudslinging than usual. And they have been kept on tenterhooks about the survival chances of Enrico Letta’s fragile coalition government.

Ever the showman, Mr Berlusconi has recently monopolised front pages and television headlines. On September 18th, the day a commission of the Senate, to which he was elected in February, took a step towards his expulsion, he bashed the magistracy and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in a recorded television message lasting 15 minutes. He vowed to continue to lead his centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party, a partner in the left-right coalition, even if expelled from parliament. Since then, logos in PdL offices have been changed back to Forza Italia (Go, Italy), the name of the movement he established in 1994 that brought him his first political success.

The name change is part of preparations for an election. So is the appeal against moves to expel him from parliament that Mr Berlusconi submitted this month to the European Court of Human Rights. Many Italians sympathise; but to others the appeal to the court is further proof that he has spent his time in politics working mostly for his own interests. Faced with a party led by a convicted tax fraudster, Mr Letta’s PD ought to be performing strongly, but it is beset by wrangling over its leadership.

The hawks and doves around Mr Berlusconi are debating whether to pull out of the coalition, creating uncertainty over how Italy can be governed. Urgent business remains untackled, particularly the budget for next year, through which both sides of the coalition will try to gain points with voters. Mr Letta has said that he is not willing to be worn down by sniping from the PdL Fabrizio Saccomanni, his treasury minister, has hinted at resignation if his budget is undermined. On September 23rd Giorgio Napolitano, the president, called on politicians to avoid a rupture and to nurture feeble signs of economic improvement. Mr Napolitano has said that he will not dissolve parliament under the existing electoral law.

The slow pace of Italian justice is partly to blame for the uncertainty. In confirming the jail sentence, the supreme court referred back to a court of appeal the question of how long Mr Berlusconi should be banned from public office. The appeal court should decide in October. This will settle only part of the question about the future of the PdL leader.