05/10/2013 09:21
Italian Senate panel recommends Berlusconi's expulsion
An Italian Senate committee on Friday recommended that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi be expelled from parliament after his conviction for tax fraud, paving the way for a final decision this month that could seal his political fate, Reuters reported.
The recommendation to kick out the man who has dominated Italian politics for the past two decades was taken by a cross-party committee of 23 Senators dominated by the center-right leader's political opponents.
It will have to be ratified later this month by a vote of the full Senate, where Berlusconi's supporters are also in a minority, before he loses his seat.
Berlusconi did not attend Friday's hearing, denouncing the procedure as a maneuver by his political enemies to remove him. His allies remained defiant after the vote.
"This is clearly a political decision to get rid of the leader of Italy's center right by judicial means," said Renato Brunetta, lower house leader of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party.
"The axmen shouldn't delude themselves, what is rolling on the floor is the title of senator, not the head of the man and the politician Berlusconi, who remains the leader and point of reference for half of the Italians."
The Senate proceedings cap a disastrous week for the 77-year-old billionaire, who was forced into a humiliating climb-down on Wednesday by a party revolt which made him back center-left Prime Minister Enrico Letta in parliament.