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| Silvio Berlusconi's party rebels in Italian Senate | Silvio Berlusconi's party rebels in Italian Senate |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| Former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi's party has abstained from a confidence vote in the Senate, sparking warnings of a political crisis. | Former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi's party has abstained from a confidence vote in the Senate, sparking warnings of a political crisis. |
| Prime Minister Mario Monti's government won the vote, but Mr Berlusconi's PDL party reportedly threatened to repeat its rebellion in the lower house. | Prime Minister Mario Monti's government won the vote, but Mr Berlusconi's PDL party reportedly threatened to repeat its rebellion in the lower house. |
| Mr Berlusconi earlier hinted he might run again in elections next year. | Mr Berlusconi earlier hinted he might run again in elections next year. |
| President Giorgio Napolitano said he wanted to avoid a "turbulent" end to Mr Monti's technocratic government. | President Giorgio Napolitano said he wanted to avoid a "turbulent" end to Mr Monti's technocratic government. |
| Mr Monti replaced Mr Berlusconi as prime minster just over a year ago, and launched a programme of reforms aimed at pulling Italy out of economic crisis. | |
| Markets reacted nervously to the fresh political tension, with the Milan stock market dipping and the difference in premiums demanded by investors to buy Italian rather than German 10-year bonds widening. | |
| Fabrizio Cicchitto, the leader of the centre-right People of Liberty (PDL) in the lower house, said the party abstained from the vote "to show our strongly critical view of their economic policies". | |
| The centre-left suggested that if the PDL abstained from a confidence vote in the lower house expected later on Thursday, it would signal that Mr Monti had lost his majority and that the president should call elections before the expected date in March, Reuters news agency reported. | |
| "We have to understand if it was an abstention on a single vote or a broader political abstention," said Democratic Party (PD) leader Pier Luigi Bersani. | |
| Mr Berlusconi, 76, appeared on Wednesday to be rowing back on statements that he would not run in 2013. | |
| "I am being assailed by requests to return to the field as soon as possible," he said after a meeting of party leaders. | |
| "Italy today is on the edge of a cliff. I cannot allow this," he said, claiming that the situation now was "far worse than when I left office last year". | |
| In response, economic development minister Corrado Passera said it would not be good for Italy's image abroad "to go back." | |
| "We need to give the sensation that the country is moving ahead," Mr Passera said. |