Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will seek a vote of confidence in Parliament today, his Minister for Relations with Parliament Elio Vito announced.
“We will ask for a vote of confidence,” Mr Vito told reporters yesterday after a meeting of Mr Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party (PDL).
The Prime Minister’s spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti confirmed the information in a statement. The vote will follow months of bitter political turmoil which has put Mr Berlusconi’s parliamentary majority in doubt.
Mr Berlusconi is scheduled to address the lower house of Parliament today – the day on which he turns 74. His government’s term in office ends in 2013.
In August the Prime Minister had said he would ask for a vote of confidence, following the departure of his long-term ally and co-founder of the PDL,
Gianfranco Fini, but no official date had been set until now.
Mr Berlusconi lost his once-comfortable parliamentary majority in July when Mr Fini quit the PDL and set up breakaway groups in Parliament.