(Rome, ITA) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi confirmed Friday that he will not run in the next elections in 2013 and will hand over the reigns of his party to Justice Minister Angelino Alfano.
"I will not be a candidate for the post of prime minister in the next elections," the 74-year-old media mogul said in an interview with the left-wing Repubblica newspaper.
"The centre-right candidate will be Alfano. If I could I would already give it up," he added.
Berlusconi said he intended to participate in the campaign "to help" Alfano and play the "noble father".
"But at 77 I could not be prime minister," he said.
The premier had already suggested in April that he would not stand again, during a dinner with foreign journalists, when he said he did not plan to have any "operative role" in the elections.
Weakened by a humiliating setback in local elections at the end of May -- when his Party of Freedom candidate was ousted from her mayoral post in Milan -- Berlusconi confirmed the 41-year-old Alfano as his successor.
It was the first time since entering office in 1994 that the billionaire premier named someone to head up his party.
But opposition members said it had yet to been seen whether Berlusconi really would release his grip on power.
"It's difficult enough to believe him when he talks about what's going to happen in a day's time," said Pier Luigi Bersani, head of the centre-left main opposition Democratic Party.
"It seems to me that Berlusconi no longer has any credibility in the eyes of the Italians... for anything he says, announces or promises for the years to come," he added.
The premier told the Repubblica Friday that he had no intention of going for the post of head of state, as some had suggested, adding that he would like to see Gianni Letta -- one of his most faithful lieutenants -- in the post.
"He's the most suitable person, a person of great value who has an excellent relationship with the centre-left" and is "a tireless worker", he said of the 76-year-old politician.
The premier also took the opportunity to take a swipe at Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, the man behind Italy's severe austerity cuts.
"He thinks he's a genius and that all the others are idiots. I put up with him because I've known him a long time and accept him as he is. But he's the only one who's not a team player," he said.
Later on Friday afternoon, Berlusconi lashed out at the Repubblica, slamming the newspaper for turning "a friendly conversation" into a formal question and answers interview -- though he did not quibble with the quotes reported.
