Latest update: 12/12/2010
Tens of thousands of Italian opposition supporters took to the streets of Rome Saturday to show their discontent with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi just days before the beleaguered prime minister faces a vote of confidence in parliament.
AP – Tens of thousands of Italians opposed to Premier Silvio Berlusconi marched through Rome on Saturday, before a make-or-break vote in Parliament, to press their demand that the media mogul leave power.
The Berlusconi government’s survival hinges on whether he can muster enough support among lawmakers despite stinging defections by important allies. If he loses the no-confidence motion, brought by the opposition in the Chamber of Deputies, or the confidence vote made in the Senate by his supporters, on Tuesday, he must resign.
Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of the main center-left opposition Democratic Party, led a rally of 100,000 supporters in St. John Lateran Square after the anti-Berlusconi protesters marched peacefully but noisily for hours through the Italian capital.
“Berlusconi must go home,” Bersani said to roaring cheers.
While Berlusconi’s government - halfway through its five-year-term – has been battered by defections and lashed by scandal, the opposition has failed to come up with a leader who can match the premier’s charisma.
“Shame, shame, shame, shame!” Bersani shouted about the allegations of vote-buying. “Adding a deputy or two, where do they think they’ll get? You can’t go on like that,” Bersani said.
Berlusconi has been taunting the left, saying its leaders are afraid of an election now.
Bersani insisted that, while the opposition “certainly isn’t afraid of elections,” the best course for the country, in the grip of a stagnant economy, would be a “transition” government until elections can be held.
The 74-year-old premier spent the day shaking hands with supporters in Milan as his People of Freedom party set up booths asking citizens to sign an appeal in support of Berlusconi.
He has brushed off fallout from months of sex scandals, including allegations he had a 17-year-old Moroccan girl at a private party at his residence one night and had an encounter with a prostitute.
Berlusconi insisted again Saturday his government still commands enough votes in Parliament to govern and welcomed any defectors who want to return to his fold. “We’re convinced we have a good majority” in Parliament to survive Tuesday’s votes, he said.
Some lawmakers loyal to Gianfranco Fini, his party’s co-founder who broke with Berlusconi over the summer, are reportedly considering voting in favor of Berlusconi.
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