ROME: Italy’s parliament on Wednesday began debating the expulsion of Silvio Berlusconi in a momentous move that will rattle but not bring down the government and leave the billionaire tycoon more at risk of arrest.
Italian Senate speaker Pietro Grasso said senators were called to discuss “the invalidation of the election of senator Berlusconi” under a law approved last year to ban convicted criminals from the parliament.
Berlusconi has asked fellow senators to delay the vote because he claims to have new evidence warranting a judicial review
of the criminal conviction for tax fraud that is the basis for his probable ejection.
In an open letter to senators, Berlusconi said voting against him “would shame you in front of your children, your voters and all Italians”, telling them that the vote was “not about me, but about democracy”.
Thousands of supporters are expected to mass outside his luxury Rome residence from 1300 GMT but experts say the expulsion is highly likely to go ahead and marks another step in Berlusconi’s slow-motion demise.
The political tensions come at an economically crucial time for Italy, which is struggling to end its longest post-war recession, and just as parliament debates next year’s budget in a bid to slash its debt and deficit.
Prime Minister Enrico Letta has called for a ‘non-chaotic situation in Italy’ and said a division within Berlusconi’s ranks ‘will help stability’. — AFP