ITALY: PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI WINS FINAL VOTE OF CONFIDENCE IN HIS NEW GOVERNMENT
Record ID:
328688
ITALY: PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI WINS FINAL VOTE OF CONFIDENCE IN HIS NEW GOVERNMENT
- Title: ITALY: PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI WINS FINAL VOTE OF CONFIDENCE IN HIS NEW GOVERNMENT
- Date: 28th April 2005
- Summary: (W3) ROME, ITALY (APRIL 28, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE VIEW OF SENATE DEBATE 0.05 2. HAS: ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI AT HIS SEAT 0.11 3. SCU: BERLUSCONI 0.19 4. WIDE OF SENATE PRESIDENT MARCELLO PERA 0.23 5. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI ADDRESSING SENATE, SAYING: "I cannot consider myself a real politician, I am only a businessman who at certain moment in his country's history stepped forward because there was no one else. I am available and I would like to be able to conclude my adventure, in the best sense of the word, my passion, my enthusiasm in the political history of this country, leave an inheritance for the country of a system made up of two forces -- the house of moderates, and the house of the left which face off against each other as happens in the great democracies, guaranteeing government stability and with that, well-being, justice and greater freedom. Thank you for the confidence that you are showing me." 1.28 6. HAS/SCU/WS: SENATE MEMBERS APPLAUDING AND SHAKING HANDS WITH BERLUSCONI (3 SHOTS) 1.42 7. VARIOUS SENATE MEMBERS VOTING, THEIR NAMES READ (4 SHOTS) 2.12 8. SV/CU: SENATE OFFICIALS COUNTING THE VOTES (2 SHOTS) 2.26 9. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) SENATE PRESIDENT MARCELLO PERA, SAYING: "Senators eligible to, voted: 287; majority 144; senators in favour 170; senators against 117. senators abstaining 0; the senate has approved." 2.45 10. WS: SENATE 2.51 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th May 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROME, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVACTX85YE2XXO9DTMBEMP3BPHIU
- Story Text: Berslusconi wins final vote of confidence in new
government.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi won a final vote
of confidence in his new government on Thursday but the
talk in Italy was of how much longer he might survive as
head of a fractious centre-right alliance.
The debate goes well beyond the fate of the new
cabinet, which even some of its own members believe may not
last more than a few months, to the bigger question of
whether Berlusconi -- now 68 -- will be in politics this
time next year.
The self-made billionaire, who burst into politics 11
years ago with a tailor-made party, has told coalition
partners he will not run for re-election unless they form a
single party.
"I don't see why voters should put their trust in a
team that doesn't know how to stick together," he said in
parliament after a bruising coalition row forced his
temporary resignation.
Few political analysts believe firmly that Berlusconi
is ready go.
They say a single party is unlikely given coalition
rivalries, concern even among allies that Berlusconi wants
too much power for the head of government and the absence
of a natural successor to the media magnate.
One coalition party leader, Marco Follini of the Union
of Christian Democrats (UDC), fired a clear warning at
Berlusconi this week not to bank on leading a bloc into
next year's vote.
"We can't slide towards 2006 as though everything was
already decided -- the structure of the coalition, the
leader and even the result," Follini told the Chamber of
Deputies.
The UDC and the National Alliance party of Foreign
Minister Gianfranco Fini forced Berlusconi to resign and
form a new government last week after voters dealt the
centre-right a battering at regional elections in early
April.
The new government, which with 99 ministers and junior
ministers is the biggest in Italy's history, easily won
confidence votes in the lower Chamber on Wednesday and the
upper Senate on Thursday.
Already Italy's longest-serving prime minister since
World War Two, Berlusconi had hoped to become the first to
lead a single government for the full five-year term of a
parliament.
The next election is due by May 2006 and opinion polls
show Berlusconi's "House of Freedoms" coalition trailing
the centre-left Union bloc, largely over economic concerns.
Franco Pavoncello, a professor of politics at John
Cabot University in Rome, said Berlusconi's allies had used
local poll defeats to "sort of shrink him back down to
size".
He cautioned against writing off Berlusconi, given no
other obvious leader of the centre-right and divisions
within the centre-left under ex-European Commission
President Romano Prodi.
A straw poll of 60 centre-right deputies in Corriere
della Sera newspaper showed UDC politician Pier Ferdinando
Casini, the telegenic speaker of the lower house, as the
most popular choice to succeed Berlusconi. Pavoncello said
the finding meant little.
"Berlusconi will probably lead a coalition for the next
vote," Pavoncello said. "Either he wins again and surprises
everyone, or he gets defeated and moves out of politics."
Berlusconi formed his Forza Italia (Go Italy) party --
named after a soccer chant -- in 1994 after Italy's old
ruling order collapsed under the weight of corruption
scandals and pledged to forge a new, two-party political
system.
He has since faced repeated criminal trials arising
from his own business dealings, including a fresh committal
request on Tuesday for alleged corruption at TV broadcaster
Mediaset. He has never received a definitive guilty
verdict.
"Nobody would be happier than me if there were another
candidate in my place in 2006 to carry the flag,"
Berlusconi said on Wednesday. "I'm here because there was
nobody else but this is not my mission in life."
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