Brussels, 14/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - "We have spoken of this issue in Council because there is no new government" stated the acting President of the Council, Anna Lindh, questioned on Monday over the victory, which has not yet been confirmed, of the Silvio Berlusconi coalition, during the Italian elections this weekend. The Swedish Prime Minister, on the sidelines of the Conference on least developed countries, recalled that the EU had decided in Nice what would be the path to follow in case a government moved away from the principals of the European Union. For Goran Persson, it is too early to say if this is the case with Italy, and Sweden will not raise the issue unless a Member States called for it and if all the Member States, consulted by Sweden, where in agreement over this procedure. As for the conflict of interest between the duties of Prime Minister and the ownership of several television stations, Mr Persson stated that Silvio Berlusconi "had promised to resolve this problem; I suppose that he will do so, but I do not know how Europe can intervene". The French Minister, Pierre Moscovici, stated for his part, on the sidelines of the General Affairs Council, that the situation is not comparable with that of Austria, even if it is not a non-event. For Mr Moscovici, in Austria, we are faced with a "xenophobic party with certain racist and anti-Semitic tendencies, while this is not the case for the party of Umberto Bossi, which is a regionalist party, a small party that has been disavowed by the electorate". The Austrian Minister, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, stated for her part that "there is no reason not to accept a democratically elected government", and that "thank God, we have Article 7", which allows to avoid that our finding ourselves in a situation like that experienced by Austria.