Berlusconi Wins No-Confidence Vote
The Guardian reports:
Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing government has survived a second of two votes of confidence in the Italian parliament, beating off a censure motion in the lower house by three votes. The chamber of deputies voted against the resolution amid tumultuous scenes inside and outside the house.
As Berlusconi loyalists and rebels brawled in parliament, tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators poured through the centre of Rome, some brandishing flares and setting off huge firecrackers that rocked the city as they exploded.
The vote – 314 to 311 – was greeted with scenes of wild jubilation by the prime minister's followers who waved Italian flags and shouted in chorus for his former ally Gianfranco Fini to resign his position as speaker of the house. Fini led the rebellion against the governing majority that brought it to the brink of collapse.
The opposition, joined by Fini's mutineers, failed in their bid to unseat the prime minister despite the efforts of three women deputies in the last stages of pregnancy who turned up to cast their votes against the government. One, Giulia Cosenza, arrived in an ambulance. Another, Giulia Bongiorno, was helped into the chamber in a wheelchair.
The third deputy, Federica Mogherini of the Democratic party, Italy's biggest opposition group, who is nine months pregnant, won a round of applause from her colleagues after fulfilling a promise to get to parliament "unless my water breaks".
Adding to the tension on a day of high drama, riot police were out in force as the demonstrators headed for the centre of Rome to register their own protests against the economic crisis and Berlusconi's government.
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