ITALY LAST night seemed headed for a spring general election, following a tense and dramatic day when, much as anticipated, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi survived confidence votes in both houses of parliament.
Mr. Berlusconi ran out the winner, but commentators and opposition leaders alike argued that a three-vote (314 to 311) victory margin in a lower house where two years ago his government had a cast iron majority of 60 plus looks more like a serious setback than an important triumph.
The centre-right’s wafer thin majority in the lower house (the government won by a comfortable 162 to 135 in the Senate) would suggest that, unless Mr Berlusconi can widen his current base, then the government’s future legislative activity will be effectively paralyzed. It may well be that Mr Berlusconi, who throughout this most recent crisis has defiantly rejected calls for his resignation, will now focus his energies on a spring election rather than staying in government with a lame-duck administration.
In the end, yesterday’s lower house vote hinged on the decision of three controversial deputies, Bruno Cesario, Domenico Scilipoti and Massimo Calearo, who two years ago were all elected in the ranks of the opposition.
Last week, all three announced that they were forming a new party, The National Movement Of Responsibilty, suggesting that they would vote in favour of Mr Berlusconi.
When their turn came to vote yesterday, all three failed to present themselves for the first “summons”. It was only when it became absolutely clear that their votes could prove crucial that all three voted on the second “summons”, thus guaranteeing Mr Berlusconi’s success. Minutes after the vote, all three were received by Mr Berlusconi.
Former centre-left prime minister Massimo D’Alema argued that whilst Mr Berlusconi had won, his victory represented a less than edifying spectacle, telling Sky TV: “This was not a pretty page in Italian parliamentary history because we’ve witnessed scenes worthy of a quick-change artist, scenes of last minute bargaining, this whole business of waiting for the second summons so as to seem decisive when you vote. This was a spectacle which can only encourage mistrust and indifference to politics.”
Former investigating magistrate, Antonio Di Pietro, who earlier this week filed a complaint to public prosecutors, alleging that Mr Berlusconi's People Of Freedom (PDL) party had offered bribes to various politicians, attacked the prime minister in parliament, saying: "Finally, your papier machéempire is over, you're at the end of the line. Hand yourself over to the judiciary and stand trial like any other Noriega. The sooner you get out of here, the better. This has become a banana republic…We have a Prime Minister who is a laughing stock abroad."