A special committee of the Italian Senate met yesterday to consider expelling former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi following his conviction for tax fraud, a decision that could shatter the fragile ruling coalition and plunge Italy into fresh political crisis.
Senior figures in Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party have threatened to pull out of Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s government if Berlusconi is stripped of his seat in the Senate.
The process that could lead to at least temporary political exile for the 76-year-old billionaire may take weeks. With tensions high between partners in the governing coalition, open conflict at yesterday’s meeting could trigger a crisis.
The 23-member panel, with representatives from the main parties, is dominated by Berlusconi adversaries.
At least 14 lawmakers are likely to vote in favor of expulsion.
Financial markets have been increasingly on edge as political tensions have escalated ahead of the meeting, driving up government borrowing costs.
With Italy struggling with a 2 trillion euro (US$2.63 trillion) public debt and mired in its longest recession since World War II, business leaders warned that political turmoil could snuff out the first glimmers of a turnaround.
“Political stability is a precondition for economic recovery, and if there were to be a crisis, the recovery would be at risk,” Federico Ghizzoni, chief executive of Unicredit, Italy’s largest bank by assets, said over the weekend.
So far, Letta’s center-left Democratic Party (PD) has insisted that Berlusconi cannot remain in parliament after Italy’s top court convicted him of being at the center of a vast tax fraud scheme at his Mediaset television empire.
The PDL says Berlusconi, sentenced to four years in jail, has been targeted unfairly by left-wing magistrates and accuses the PD of using judicial tactics to eliminate a rival it has been unable to defeat politically.
The complicated committee rules may avert an immediate showdown between the center-left PD and Berlusconi’s center-right PDL, which were forced together in an unwilling coalition after deadlocked elections in February.
Berlusconi’s lawyers argue that the “Severino law,” under which convicted politicians are ineligible for parliament, cannot apply in Berlusconi’s case because it was passed last year.
Berlusconi’s lawyers have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. They want the Senate committee to postpone proceedings until the European Court decides or Italy’s constitutional court rules on whether the law is valid.
That possibility has been rejected by the PD.
Whatever the outcome of the committee meeting, Berlusconi faces months in the political wilderness, which could prevent him from standing in any election if the government falls.
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
RSS