Berlusconi wins Senate vote

Youths, holding shields with titles of books, march during a protest to demand a change of government as parliament met to hold a crucial vote that could topple Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday in Rome. Berlusconi survived a crucial confidence vote in the lower house of parliament by 314 votes in favour and 311 against.Photo: AFP

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi won a confidence motion in the Senate as expected yesterday, ahead of a lower house vote that could force him to resign or leave him clinging on to a wafer-thin majority.
The centre-right government's secure majority in the upper house meant there was little doubt about the vote on a confidence motion it had called itself to underline its legitimacy. The government won by 162 votes to 135.
Shares in media company Mediaset, controlled by Berlusconi's family, recovered ground and turned positive after the initial vote.
But the result was just the first round in a showdown that will climax with a no-confidence vote in the lower house expected around 1230 GMT.
After a year overshadowed by corruption and sex scandals and an acrimonious split with former ally Gianfranco Fini that cost him a secure parliamentary majority, a day of reckoning has arrived for Berlusconi after two and a half years in power.
The 74-year-old media tycoon has repeatedly defied the sceptics, shrugging off a string of gaffes and scandals to win three elections and transform Italy's political landscape since gaining power for the first time in 1994.