ITALY: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has suffered humiliation in parliament in a vote that indicated he no longer had a majority and ratcheted up pressure for him to resign

Record ID: 327618

  • Title: ITALY: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has suffered humiliation in parliament in a vote that indicated he no longer had a majority and ratcheted up pressure for him to resign
  • Date: 9th November 2011
  • Summary: ROME, ITALY (NOVEMBER 8, 2011) (REUTERS) INTERIOR OF LOWER HOUSE ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI, INTERIOR MINISTER ROBERTO MARONI AND NORTHERN LEAGUE LEADER UMBERTO BOSSI VOTING PARLIAMENTARIANS VOTING LOWER HOUSE SPEAKER GIANFRANCO FINI ANNOUNCING VOTE RESULT BOARD SHOWING VOTE RESULT LOWER HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) OPPOSITION LEADER PIER LUIGI BERSANI SAYING: "If you still have some sense of responsibility towards Italy left inside you, please resign. We will take our own responsibilities, for our country, we will take our responsibilities." PARLIAMENTARIANS APPLAUDING MORE PARLIAMENTARIANS INSIDE LOWER HOUSE VARIOUS PARLIAMENTARIANS SURROUNDING ITALIAN PRIME MINISTERS SILVIO BERLUSCONI EXTERIOR OF PARLIAMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) OPPOSITION PARLIAMENTARIAN FROM ITALY OF VALUES PARTY (IDV) LEOLUCA ORLANDO SAYING: "I think it is far too clear that the government has not a majority anymore, they can't promote any fundamental decision, I think that what is left now is wait that Prime Minister Berlusconi goes to Quirinale and resign, and finallyleaving the future of this country to his personal interests." DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENTS SHOUTING 'GO TO ANTIGUA OR GO TO JAIL' (SOUNDBITE) (English) PARLIAMENTARIAN MEMBER OF PEOPLE OF FREEDOM PARTY (PDL) ANTONIO MARTINO SAYING (Reporter asking if the vote was about Berlusconi's survival): "Well, it wasn't the survival of Mr Berlusconi, they voted on the budget relating to last year, they cannot change the past with a vote anyway, they had no choice but to vote for it. The opposition did not vote, we voted in favour and it was approved. (Reporter asking about Berlusconi: "Will he still be Prime Minister by next week?") Oh, that is hard to tell. See, it would be very boring if life was so predictable" EXTERIOR OF PARLIAMENT PARLIAMENTARIAN MEMBER OF PEOPLE OF FREEDOM PARTY (PDL) MAURIZIO PANIZ SAYING OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) PARLIAMENTARIAN MEMBER OF PEOPLE OF FREEDOM PARTY (PDL) MAURIZIO PANIZ SAYING: "Compared to the last confidence vote surely we have less votes, math is not an opinion. But our numbers allow us to think we are still ahead of the opposition." JAMES WALSTON, PROFESSOR AND CHAIR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AT THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ROME, ARRIVING FOR INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAMES WALSTON, PROFESSOR AND CHAIR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AT THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ROME, SAYING: "He (Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi) genuinely thinks he is the only person that can save Italy, but his friends are now trying to persuade him that he is the problem, not the solution." VARIOUS DEMONSTRATORS PROTESTING OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT
  • Embargoed: 24th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy, Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABC53HR4NAKSL7156HM8RCOLIN
  • Story Text: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a huge humiliation in parliament on Tuesday (November 8) in a vote that indicated he no longer had a majority and ratcheted up pressure for him to resign.
    Berlusconi's government won a key budget vote after the opposition abstained but obtained only 308 votes compared with an absolute majority in the lower house of 316 votes.
    Opposition leader Pier Luigi Bersani immediately called on Berlusconi to resign, saying Italy ran a real risk of losing access to financial markets after yields on government bonds had approached the red line of 7 percent.
    "If you still have some sense of responsibility towards Italy left inside you, please resign. We will take our own responsibilities, for our country, we will take our responsibilities," Bersani said immediately after the vote.
    Berlusconi has been on the ropes for weeks but Tuesday's events seem to be pushing him towards inevitable resignation.
    "I think it is far too clear that the government has not a majority anymore," said Leoluca Orlando, a parliamentarian from the opposition party Italy of Values (IDV).
    "What is left now is wait that Prime Minister Berlusconi goes to Quirinale and resign, and finallyleaving the future of this country to his personal interests," he added.
    Earlier Berlusconi's key coalition ally, Umberto Bossi, head of the devolutionist Northern League, told him to step down as the 75-year-old media magnate suffered a series of what could be mortal blows.
    Bossi said Berlusconi should be replaced by Angelino Alfano, secretary of the premier's PDL party.
    "We asked the prime minister to stand down," Bossi told reporters outside parliament.
    "The opposition did not vote, we voted in favour and it was approved," said Antonio Martino, a member of Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party and former Defence Minister. Asked by a reporter if Berlusconi will still be Prime Minister, Martino joked on his leader's uncertain future. "Oh, that is hard to tell. See, it would be very boring if life was so predictable," he said.
    Berlusconi had remained defiant ahead of Tuesday afternoon's vote on a public finance measure, rejecting calls from all sides to step down and desperately trying to win back a large group of rebels in the PDL. The vote showed that he had not been able to stem a major rebellion.
    Some parliamentarians from the governments still showed some optimism about the coalition's destiny.
    "Compared to the last confidence vote surely we have less votes, math is not an opinion," said PDL member Maurizio Paniz. "But our numbers allow us to think we are still ahead of the opposition."
    Bossi's action and the parliamentary vote could finally tip the balance against Berlusconi as red lights flash on bond markets about Italy's instability.
    "He genuinely thinks he is the only person that can save Italy" James Walston, professor and chair of international relations at the American University of Rome, told Reuters. "But his friends are now trying to persuade him that he is the problem, not the solution."
    The League, together with many members of the PDL, are believed to want Berlusconi to make way for a new centre-right government capable of tackling a huge economic crisis and restoring the confidence of markets without handing power to a transitional administration.
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