He also negatively judged the desire of the Berlusconi government to intervene with a decree in the case of Eluana Englaro and supported the need to defend the secularism of the State, being then criticized by members of UDC and of his own party. In recent times he has become more and more vocally critical of the government platform, which he considers too biased towards the far-right federalist coalition party Lega Nord. This has brought him into conflict with Berlusconi himself.