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Berlusconi Backs Down on Threat to Topple Government Mutiny Halts Italian Gambit By Berlusconi
(about 9 hours later)
ROME — In a startling move, a shaken Silvio Berlusconi stood before the Senate in Italy on Wednesday and announced that his center-right party would support the fragile coalition government, a dramatic reversal after he had spent days vowing to bring down the government and force new elections. ROME — He seemed stunned, if immaculately tailored in a dark suit that sheathed him like armor.
The backing of Mr. Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party allowed the prime minister, Enrico Letta, to easily win a confidence vote in the Italian Senate on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Letta is expected to win a similar vote in the lower house of Parliament, where he commands a secure majority, later in the day. But the Silvio Berlusconi who stood before the Italian Senate on Wednesday was no longer invincible. His brazen attempt to bring down Italy’s coalition government had provoked a mutiny in his own party. Most startling, Mr. Berlusconi, the powerful former prime minister, was reversing himself and bending to the rebellion.
For all the Shakespearean elements of pride, betrayal and hubris displayed on Wednesday during the political theatrics, the government survived a confidence vote with unexpected ease. The more significant news was that moderates promising deep reforms scored an unusually decisive victory in the most unstable of the euro zone’s big economies.
At a time when several major countries, notably including the United States, are paralyzed by partisan political warfare, the defeat for Mr. Berlusconi was greeted by many as a welcome, if still tentative, sign that Italy could carry out long-delayed changes to its political system and take steps to revive its sclerotic economy. “We are seeing the long twilight of the Berlusconi era,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political analyst in Rome.
Mr. Berlusconi’s attempt to bring down the government was intended to resuscitate his endangered political career as he faces a pending prison sentence, analysts say. Instead, it fractured his center-right movement in Italy, which was threatened with a wave of defections. Standing in the Senate, Mr. Berlusconi, 77, was forced to reverse himself and pledge his party’s support for the same government that he had failed to topple.
Political instability is considered one of Italy’s most endemic bugaboos, commonly blamed for the country’s inability to undertake difficult but critical economic and electoral changes. European officials are especially worried about instability in Italy, one of the largest and most important economies in the euro zone, and fretted that new elections might unleash populist anger and threaten the tentative recovery under way on the Continent.
Now the question is whether Italy’s newly validated government can approve sweeping changes to a flawed electoral system that seems designed to produce splintered results. The government was formed five months ago after inconclusive results in national elections; it is an awkward, midwifed partnership between Italy’s competing center-left and center-right parties.
The country’s youthful prime minister, Enrico Letta, was often regarded as a doomed figure: sober and well intentioned but trapped by an unworkable political marriage. On Wednesday, Mr. Letta, 47, made a forceful plea on behalf of the government, warning lawmakers that Italy was emerging from its worst economic slump since World War II and that dissolving the government would only deepen the crisis.
Mr. Letta’s top priority is rejuvenating Italy’s cumbersome electoral system and streamlining the country’s multiple and costly layers of government. Currently, Italy’s Parliament has nearly 1,000 members in the Senate and the Lower House, a figure that lawmakers concede should be sharply reduced.
Moreover, the Parliament is under pressure to pass structural changes in how elections are conducted, so voters can more directly select their representatives, rather than the current system that uses complicated formulas to calculate vote shares.
On the economy, Mr. Letta has promised to cut taxes on employers and workers and to push steps to make Italy more competitive. On Wednesday, he also promised to crack down on tax evasion and emphasized the need to reduce a jobs crisis that has pushed youth unemployment to 40 percent.
He also made clear that Italy’s fate is intertwined with that of Europe, and that Italian lawmakers needed to prove they were responsible stewards, willing to tackle tough issues. He said that the political roller coaster that had consumed Italy this year was no longer tenable, and that the government needed a strong confidence vote as an endorsement to push through big changes and send a signal of stability to businesses and investors.
“Courage and confidence is what I am asking of you,” he said. “Give us the confidence to fulfill our goals, for all that we have accomplished and started in these few months.”
Beneath such lofty statements, though, was a complicated political fight provoked unexpectedly last week when Mr. Berlusconi ordered his party’s government ministers to resign from the shaky coalition, in hopes of forcing new elections.
It was a gamble influenced by Mr. Berlusconi’s own legal troubles: On Oct. 15, he will begin serving a one-year prison sentence, most likely under house arrest, for his recent tax fraud conviction. A commission of the Italian Senate on Friday will resume deliberations to strip him of his Senate seat. A court in Milan will soon rule on how many years he is to be banned from seeking any public office, again based on the tax conviction.
Mr. Berlusconi is such a dominant figure over his party, People of Freedom, that internal challenges have been almost unheard-of. But with his future unclear, many of his lieutenants unexpectedly rebelled against his order to bring down the government. Most surprisingly, Angelino Alfano, the deputy prime minister and considered one of Mr. Berlusconi’s closest protégés, publicly challenged him on Tuesday, vowing to support the government, even as other center-right lawmakers talked openly of forming a new party.
All those fissures were publicly exposed on Wednesday: Mr. Berlusconi met with his party leaders before the parliamentary vote and apparently decided to oppose the government. One center-right lawmaker, Renato Brunetta, announced this decision in the Senate. But it quickly became clear that a bloc of moderates led by Mr. Alfano would support the government and possibly form a new party. Meanwhile, Roberto Formigoni, another center-right lawmaker, also spoke about forming his own party.
“We have the numbers,” Mr. Formigoni said. “Those who called us traitors will now see us as farseeing pioneers.”
With his movement fracturing, Mr. Berlusconi unexpectedly appeared in the Senate at 1:30 p.m. At times covering his eyes with his hands, Mr. Berlusconi eventually stood and pledged his support to Mr. Letta’s government.
“Putting together the expectations and the fact that Italy needs a government that produces institutional and structural reforms, we have decided to vote for the confidence motion, not without internal pain,” Mr. Berlusconi said.“Putting together the expectations and the fact that Italy needs a government that produces institutional and structural reforms, we have decided to vote for the confidence motion, not without internal pain,” Mr. Berlusconi said.
His appearance came after a wrenching 24 hours in which many of his crucial lieutenants had rejected his push to topple the coalition government. Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Letta made a passionate plea on behalf of his coalition, warning lawmakers that political instability could send the country into a deeper economic crisis and imploring them to show the rest of Europe that Italy is ready to tackle difficult reforms. Analysts said Mr. Berlusconi’s reversal, if embarrassing, was his only option, given his failure to topple the government. If he can reorganize his forces for future elections, analysts said, he can tell voters that he acted in the nation’s interests. It was also an attempt to corral his mutineers and possibly keep his party together.
Mr. Letta had called for the confidence vote in response to a crisis that was set off last week when Mr. Berlusconi ordered his party’s government ministers to resign from the coalition. Facing serious legal problems and a prison term, Mr. Berlusconi had calculated that forcing elections might provide him with new political life. By Wednesday evening it remained unclear how center-right lawmakers might follow through on their threats to form new parties. Some of those lawmakers compared the episode to a family spat and predicted that the party would remain intact.
But Mr. Berlusconi, a former prime minister who has dominated Italy’s center-right for two decades, was confronted with an unexpected rebellion among many lawmakers in his party, with some saying publicly that they would vote in support of Mr. Letta’s government. Earlier Wednesday, there were reports that the center-right would split, though it was unclear if Mr. Berlusconi’s surprise announcement could hold the party together. But there seemed little doubt that Mr. Berlusconi is a diminished figure. To many pro-Europe advocates, this will come as good news, since he has often been unpredictable and, at times, critical of European integration.
His party held an emergency meeting on Wednesday morning, and initial reports from the discussions suggested that Mr. Berlusconi would maintain his opposition to Mr. Letta’s government. Mr. Berlusconi’s recent tax fraud conviction resulted in a one-year prison sentence, which is to begin on Oct. 15, probably under house arrest. A court in Milan is expected to rule on how long he will be banned from public office. “Berlusconi is the big loser,” said Mario Sechi, a political commentator with Radio 24. “He has been made lame. He can only try to recover the party, but that will be very difficult.”
On Friday, a commission of the Italian Senate will resume deliberations on whether to strip him of his current Senate seat.

Elisabetta Povoledo and Lucia Magi contributed reporting.

The day began with Mr. Letta’s making a 46-minute address to the Italian Senate that was broadcast on national television. His government was midwifed into existence five months ago by Italy’s president, Giorgio Napolitano, after inconclusive national elections. It was an awkward marriage of Italy’s center-left and the center-right, led by Mr. Berlusconi.
In his speech, Mr. Letta argued that the credibility of Italy’s political class was at stake, not only with Italian citizens, but also with other Europeans, who fear that political instability in Rome could bring problems elsewhere in the euro zone. He noted that the period when the Italian republic enjoyed political stability — from 1947 to 1968 — also coincided with an era of rapid economic growth and public optimism.
Now, Mr. Letta argued, a new Europe is being formed out of the euro crisis and Italy cannot remain in a “bunker” of petty, partisan politics. The country, he said, needs a stable, collaborative government to tackle structural reforms on election laws and financial issues.
“The Europe of the next 15 years is being formed now,” he said. “We can’t confront this with an absence of leadership.”

Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting.