Rome was yesterday recovering from violence that left more than 100 people injured and dozens arrested after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi survived a crucial no-confidence vote.
Mr Berlusconi scraped through by just three votes, with 314 lawmakers voting in his favour, 311 against and two abstentions in the 630-seat lower House.
Angry protesters banged on the metal blinds of shuttered shops in the centre of Rome as word spread that Mr Berlusconi had survived the vote.
Some protesters set cars alight and hurled cobblestones and fireworks at police, sending tourists fleeing from the battle zones.
Riot police fired tear gas and could be seen striking some of the protesters with truncheons in running street fights.
The clashes came after a peaceful march by tens of thousands of anti-Berlusconi protesters through the centre of Rome. Organisers claimed around 100,000 had turned out in the capital.
There were also protests in some of Italy’s biggest cities including Genoa, Milan, Naples and Turin.
“What happened yesterday was not an expression of freedom. It was an attack by organised groups of hooligans,” Mr Berlusconi said on a news show.
The clashes revived memories of the “Years of Lead” in the 1970s and 1980s when Italy was rocked by violent political militancy.
“Rome was defiled like it hadn't been since 1977 during the terrible Years of Lead,” when Italy suffered a wave of terrorist attacks and social turmoil, said the Corriere della Sera daily.
Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno was quoted by La Repubblica saying the clashes were “shocking” and likened them to the “climate of gratuitous violence that was in the streets of Rome in the 1970s and that I hoped to never see again.”
“The absurd outburst of violence that devastated a part of Rome is an alarm bell because... a rebellion without rules is taking root,” Il Messaggero said.
La Repubblica said the violence was “a reflection of the unease, of the insecurity of a country that can no longer be heard, that no longer finds common ground between itself and those that govern it.”
Mr Berlusconi yesterday also said he would now try to bolster his support in Parliament by appealing to individual deputies to join his ruling majority as well as possibly including them in the government.“Taking the country to a vote would be really irresponsible,” he said, referring to the current turbulence on European financial markets.
Columnist Stefano Folli, writing in business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, said: “The Prime Minister is moving prudently. He knows that the government is very weak and that he first has to patch it up and then consolidate it.
“There are two possibilities: Trying to enlarge the majority in Parliament... or prepare for early elections,” Mr Folli said.
“It's clear that after the vote the government cannot restart its politics of announcements... without guaranteeing even a basic governance,” he added.
La Repubblica said early elections were “the most likely outcome,” while Corriere della Sera said: “Early elections are closer after yesterday.”
The current Berlusconi government took power in 2008 – he has won two previous elections – and its mandate is only set to run out in 2013.
“His precarious majority hangs on a thousand impossible promises and will not allow the premier to approve anything,” La Repubblica said. “The Cavaliere has won but the game has only just begun,” it added.
Mr Berlusconi himself on Tuesday conceded that the vote would make it “more difficult” for his government to pass much-needed structural reforms.
Parliament speaker Gianfranco Fini, whose defection from the coalition led to the no-confidence vote, on Tuesday said Mr Berlusconi had only won “a numerical victory”.
But he conceded that his Future and Freedom for Italy movement had suffered a “painful” defeat.
The vote was seen as one of the most serious challenges to Mr Berlusconi in his 16-year political career – and despite his win, it leaves his government vulnerable, with early elections still a possibility, analysts said.
There were heated debates and chaotic scenes in the Italian Parliament, where supporters and opponents of Mr Berlusconi could be seen shoving each other at one point shortly before the result of the vote was announced.
Key dates in Berlusconi’s political career
March 1994: Billionaire media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi bursts onto the political scene, win-ning elections with his Forza Italia (Go Italy) party after a series of corruption scandals badly damage Italy’s political elites.
December 1994: Northern League party leader Umberto Bossi – currently one of Mr Berlusconi’s few close allies – pulls out of the coalition government following rows with the Prime Minister and forces MrBerlusconi to resign.
May 2001: Mr Berlusconi bounces back with an election win after a US-style campaign in which he signs a “Contract with Italians” live on television. He goes on to serve the longest stint as premier in Italian post-war history.
July 2003: Mr Berlusconi causes international shockwaves after comments in the European Parliament in which he mockingly invites a German member of Parliament who criticised him to play a concentration camp guard in a new Italian film.
April 2006: Mr Berlusconi is narrowly defeated by a centre-left coalition called The Union that the Prime Minister nicknames “The Soviet Union”. Former European Commission president Romano Prodi becomes Italy’s new Prime Minister.
January 2007: Mr Berlusconi’s wife demands a public apology after he flirts with one of his deputies, telling her: “I’d go anywhere with you, even to a desert island. If I weren’t already married, I would marry you straight away.”
April 2008: Mr Berlusconi wins his third election victory after the sudden collapse of Mr Prodi’s government with his new People of Freedom party amid stagnation in the Italian economy and a garbage crisis in Naples.
May 2009: Mr Berlusconi’s wife says she can no longer be with a man who “cavorts with minors” after scandalous allegations on the Prime Minister’s involvement with a young Neapolitan model who calls him “Daddy”.
November 2010: Speaker of Parliament Gianfranco Fini breaks up his long-term alliance with Mr Berlusconi after a series of angry disputes, pulling his four ministers out of the government and triggering the December 14 confidence vote.
December 14, 2010: Mr Berlusconi scrapes through a crucial confidence vote in the lower house of Parliament that could have brought down his government, but opponents say he will still fall because of his tiny three-seat majority.