[ Residents Clash With Riot Police on the Streets of Rome – NTD ]
Plagued by heavy opposition and personal scandals, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will continue to face tough times, as he surprisingly survived two motions of no confidence with only a three-vote difference, to the great discontent of 100,000 protesters in Rome.
On Tuesday, both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate had to vote on Berlusconi’s future and of the country. With two abstentions, 314 members of the Chamber of Deputies voted on Tuesday in favor of Berlusconi and 311 wanted the prime minister to resign. The Senate voted as well in favor of Berlusconi, with 11 abstentions, 162 against the motion and 135 in favor of it. If the scales in either one of the votes were to have tipped to the other side, Berlusconi would have had to resign, and the country would face new elections.
Berlusconi has been hounded by a number of scandals concerning corruption, involvement with a minor, and accounting fraud during the acquisition of television rights by his Mediaset television empire during his current term as prime minister, The Epoch Times reported previously. This led to a break within the ruling People of Liberty Party (PDL).
Gianfranco Fini, a former ally to Berlusconi, started a new party together with 33 members of Parliament over issues of ethics within the party. This creation of the Future and Freedom Party (FLI) at the end of July caused Berlusconi’s coalition to lose the majority of votes in the Chamber of Deputies.
Since Fini’s formation of FLI, the support of the 34 votes have proven to be essential to Berlusconi’s government. It has shown in recent weeks that “whenever FLI voted with the opposition, the government was under broad, of 15–20 votes,” Dario Franceschini of the Democratic Party said on his website on Monday.
This loss of majority spurred Franceschini to initiate the motion of no confidence in the Chamber of Deputies on Nov. 12. “The government no longer has the support of the original majority,” motion 1-00492 states. The reason for this loss of support, according to the motion, was due to ineffectiveness, “since the tenure of the executive does not address and resolve some of the serious problems of the country.”
Sen, Nicola Bricola of the Northern League (NLP) was more straightforward. During the Senate voting session, which was transmitted live on Italian television, he said, “In recent months there has been a shameful theater of politics that has undermined the credibility of institutions and has disoriented citizens.”
On Monday, Berlusconi appealed to the Senate to vote in favor of the government regarding the resolution submitted by Sens. Gasparre, Bricolo, and Quagliariello. He urged senators “to really think, with all seriousness and depth possible about what you are going to do.” He said that “breaking the units of the moderates is something that goes against the history of our country,” after which he started to mention that history might rule his actions to have been just.
Berlusconi also stressed that his good personal international relations have been and are good for Italy’s economy.
Even though Berlusconi has survived both votes, according to Franceschini, Berlusconi would still have a very tough time ruling the country despite passing, as he cannot count on the majority of Parliament to pass any new initiatives.
In Rome, 100,000 protesters gathered in the morning calling for Berlusconi’s resignation. The Italian paper Repubblica reports that the morning was quiet as protesting groups marched through the city. Things escalated in the early afternoon, when they met with security forces sealing off access to Parliament. Flying stones and sticks combined with full-scale teargas, and even a flaming armored car, to make up what the paper described as a battlefield. Police arrested 41 people.
“On the ground, in addition to debris and the remains of the battle, the gaps are left from the extraction of cobblestones. On the steps, trails of blood,” the paper reports. In all, 91 people were reported injured.
