ROME ? Economist Mario Monti won some pledges of support Sunday to lead a new technocratic government to rescue Italy from the brink of financial disaster, but not from the Northern League, the party that represents Italy's productive north.
President Giorgio Napolitano, who was talking Sunday with all party leaders, could tap Monti as soon as Sunday evening, just 24 hours after former Premier Silvio Berlusconi resigned.
After days of being pummeled by international investors skittish about Italy's massive debts, Italy faces severe pressure from the financial markets to have a new government before markets open.
Umberto Bossi, the longtime ally of Berlusconi, said his Northern League party won't back any Monti-led government "for now." Bossi told reporters he informed Napolitano that his party, whose support kept Berlusconi's conservative coalition in power in three governments, will be a "vigilant" opposition to any Monti government until the economist spells out his program to rescue Italy's troubled economy.
"For now, we said, 'no.' Then we'll see the program and decide, time by time" whether to lend support on specific legislation, Bossi said, whose party had been demanding early elections instead.
Whoever leads Italy faces a monumental task: an Italian default could tear apart the coalition of 17 countries that use the euro and deal a strong blow to the economies of Europe and the U.S., which are trying to avoid new recessions.
In addition, the Italian economy ? the third largest in the 17-nation eurozone after Germany and France ? is considered too big for Europe to bail out like it did Greece, Portugal and Ireland. It totals $2 trillion, more than twice as much as the other three bailout countries combined.
The next Italian government needs to push through even more painful reforms and austerity measures to deal with Italy's staggering debts, which stand at euro 1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), or a huge 120 percent of economic output. In addition, Italy has to roll over more than euro300 billion ($410 billion) of its debts next year alone.
The yield on benchmark Italian 10-year bonds fell to 6.48 percent Friday, below the crisis level of 7 percent reached earlier this week, the same rate that forced other EU nations into international bailouts.
Most centrists and center-left parties in the opposition have pledged their support for a Monti government, saying the former European Union competition commissioner has the moral authority and economic know-how to finally start Italy on the long-delayed structural reforms of its economy.
Monti was reserved Sunday as he and his wife headed to church in Rome. Asked whether he was excited at the prospect of being Italy's next premier, he responded: "Have you noticed what a beautiful day it is?"
Roberto Maroni, a founder of the Northern League, said he personally esteems Monti.
"But Parliament must have the guarantee of an opposition," Maroni told Italy's Sky TG24 TV in an interview. Otherwise it won't be a democratic parliament."
Pressured for days by the markets, which lost faith in the once charismatic Berlusconi, the 75-year-old media mogul stepped down Saturday night after anti-crisis measures won final approval in Parliament. He slipped out of the presidential palace through a side door after handing Napolitano his resignation, as a hecklers jeered in the square outside the main entrance.
Maroni said he spoke with Berlusconi Saturday night and found him "very tried, physically tired. But he is always a great fighter."
"It was an ugly show to see. People spitting, throwing" objects, Maroni said of the hecklers.
"This phase is over, a blank page is being opened," Maroni said, holding out hope that the League and Berlusconi's forces might again join in a future political coalition.
The League is pressing for elections earlier than their spring 2013 due date.
Several leaders in Berlusconi's own conservative party have openly said they either want the outgoing premier's political heir, Angelino Alfano, or some Italian veteran politician like former premier Lamberto Dini. Others in Berlusconi's party are demanding elections now.
Berlusconi's longtime nemesis, former anti-corruption prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro said his small Italy of Values Party would be willing to back a strictly "technocrat" government with no politicians in the cabinet "to respond to the (economic) emergency and give back this country its credibility."
Without mention Monti by name, Di Pietro insisted after meeting with Napolitano that elections must be held as soon as possible. But, he acknowledged, "in these hours of emergency, it's very hard" to carry out an electoral campaign.
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