Berlusconi about-face as his allies defy him
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Silvio Berlusconi made a stunning about-face yesterday and threw his support behind the government of Italian Premier Enrico Letta in a confidence vote, acknowledging defeat on the Senate floor after defections in his party robbed him of the backing he needed to bring down the government.
Berlusconi’s support ensured the survival — for now — of Letta’s five-month-old left-right coalition. But it signaled that the 77-year-old billionaire’s once unchallenged authority over Italy’s center-right has wobbled as his judicial woes catch up with him.
“Italy needs a government that can produce structural and institutional reforms that the country needs to modernize,” Berlusconi said. “We have decided, not without internal strife, to vote in confidence.”
It was a major setback for Berlusconi, who over the weekend had demanded his five Cabinet ministers quit the government and bring it down, incensed at a vote planned for tomorrow that could strip him of his Senate seat following his tax fraud conviction and four-year prison sentence.
But in a remarkable challenge to Berlusconi’s authority, several allies said they would instead support Letta’s hybrid coalition to push ahead with necessary economic and political measures. Italy is in its second year of recession, youth unemployment reached a record 40 percent last month, and Italy’s president has insisted a new electoral law be passed to avoid inconclusive results in any future general election.
The unusual show of defiance could signal that Berlusconi’s influence has seriously eroded after two decades leading Italy’s center-right.
Some commentators have likened his erratic and seemingly counterproductive reaction to the challenge to the fitful sparks of a candle going out.
But Berlusconi has endured numerous setbacks in the past. For the first time, though, he now has a definitive court sentence against him and the possibility he could be barred from public office.
Berlusconi’s close collaborator Renato Schifani stressed that the party had voted together.
“I am truly happy that there was no split,” he was quoted as saying by Italian news agencies. “Berlusconi’s leadership has been strengthened.”
Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party has been badly divided ever since a court upheld his tax fraud conviction in August. But it has been thrown into chaos after several lawmakers and his closest ally Angelino Alfano openly defied him and said they would support Letta.
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