Italy’s Berlusconi tipped for defeat as supporters rally
‘This is a government which stagnates’
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will lose this week’s confidence vote triggering fresh political crisis, his former ally Gianfranco Fini said yesterday, as thousands of his supporters took to the streets.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but I believe Berlusconi will not have the confidence,” said Mr Fini, once a powerful ally but now a bitter rival, in an interview with broadcaster Rai 3.
“We find ourselves in a situation of political crisis with this government,” said Mr Fini, who is the lower house speaker.
Mr Berlusconi says he will win a majority of votes in a nail-biting confidence motion tomorrow, despite the defection of Mr Fini and around 40 lawmakers from the ruling coalition earlier this year, which has led to the vote.
Mr Fini said that Mr Berlusconi had lost the trust of the Italian people and needed to resign so the country could move on.
“If the censure motion does not succeed, we will find ourselves with a government which will try to survive... This is not a stable government, but a government which stagnates,” he said.
Mr Fini said a new centre-right government should replace Mr Berlusconi in the event of his resignation.
Supporters of the 74-year-old Prime Minister took to the streets in about 100 towns and cities across the country, The People for Freedom party said.
In Rome, thousands joined a rally where they watched a video message from Mr Berlusconi, in which he accused the breakaway faction of former ally Gianfranco Fini of betraying voters.
“I will secure the vote of confidence,” Mr Berlusconi said in the message, which was previously broadcast on Saturday and repeated with Mr Berlusconi unable to address the crowd directly due to technical problems.
“We are here to win the backing of our supporters... The People of Freedom is a populist party... It has governed Italy well, and wishes to continue to do this, in parliament and in the whole country,” said the party’s senate leader Maurizio Gasparri, one of a number of big-hitters at the rally.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied against Mr Berlusconi in Rome on Saturday at the call of the main opposition Democratic Party, which laid on 18 special trains, 1,500 buses and even two ships to bring them from all over Italy.
Mr Berlusconi is expected to give a key speech about the political crisis in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, at around this morning.
The confidence votes will then be held in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, tomorrow.
The vote in the 630-seat lower house is expected to be extremely tight, with neither ruling coalition nor opponents certain of securing a majority. Italian newspapers have been filled in recent days with reports of attempts by Berlusconi allies to “buy” votes by offering consultancy contracts to wavering deputies and there have been some defections to the Berlusconi camp.