Berlusconi survives second straight confidence vote (Roundup)

Sep 30, 2010, 18:17 GMT

Rome - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday won his second parliamentary confidence vote in two days when the upper house approved the government's proposed priorities for its scheduled remaining three years in office.

In the Senate, the ruling conservative coalition received 174 votes for and 129 against. There were two abstentions.

Berlusconi's programme - including security; federalist, judiciary and fiscal reforms; and support for Italy's less developed south - had already won approval in the lower house Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday.

The premier's decision to present the proposals to parliament was seen as a way of testing his support in the wake of a split within his People of Freedom party.

A defeat for the government in either of the two houses could have forced it to resign and trigger early elections.

But victory for the premier had appeared more likely when, on Wednesday, some 35 dissident centre-right parliamentarians declared they would support the government on the basis of a reconciliatory speech given by Berlusconi before the vote.

In a similar speech in the Senate on Thursday, Berlusconi said his government was 'emerging stronger' from the parliamentary test.

However, the dissident parliamentarians warned that they would evaluate reforms - particularly those involving the judiciary - on an individual basis before deciding whether to back them in parliament.

Berlusconi's rare foray in parliament - this week's appearance marked only the second time the premier has participated in a debate since his April 2008 election victory - came in the wake of several months of acrimony between himself and his former ally, Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.

The split has cast doubts over the government's ability to see out its mandate, which runs until 2013.

Fini, and a few dozen parliamentarians loyal to him, were effectively expelled from People of Freedom in July after repeated disagreements, including over proposed legislation to limit the use of wiretapping in investigations.

Fini has also accused the media-magnate premier of running the People of Freedom like a 'private company.' Berlusconi's allies have demanded that the speaker resign.

Berlusconi however, in his speeches on Wednesday and Thursday, appeared intent upon offering an olive branch to the Fini camp, explaining that differences within the ruling coalition 'can be debated.'