28/11/2013 10:09
Italian Senate votes to expel Berlusconi
The Italian Senate voted Wednesday to expel former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from parliament after his conviction for tax fraud. The vote was 192 to 113, with two abstentions, CNN reported.
Analysts had predicted his ouster, with both the center-left Democratic Party and anti-establishment Five-Star Movement promising to vote against the billionaire media tycoon.
The vote follows Berlusconi's conviction on charges related to a vast tax fraud conspiracy at his Mediaset television empire.
The 77-year-old, who has dominated Italian politics for two decades, pulled his Forza Italia party out of Prime Minister Enrico Letta's ruling coalition Tuesday after seven months in government.
Berlusconi was sentenced to four years in jail -- commuted to a year of community service -- and was banned from holding public office for two years, preventing any immediate return to government.
Under a law passed with his support last year, politicians convicted of serious criminal offenses are ineligible for parliament, but an expulsion must first be confirmed by a vote in the Senate.
The former PM had called on his supporters to protest in Rome ahead of the vote. He even asked senators to delay the ballot, claiming to have new evidence proving he did not commit tax fraud.
Berlusconi, who served on and off as prime minister between 1994 and 2011, has dominated the lively Italian political scene for the past two decades. Despite his expulsion from parliament, he is unlikely to disappear.
"He is not out of politics, he is out of government," James Walston, chairman of the International Relations Department at the American University of Rome, told CNN. "He will cease being Sen. Berlusconi."