Thousands take to streets in Rome against Berlusconi

Oct 2, 2010, 17:29 GMT

Rome - Thousands of protestors from around the country took part in fresh protests against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday, days after the premier scraped through a confidence vote in parliament.

Saturday's march was the second so-called 'No B Day' organised by the Popola Viola (Purple People) coalition, to display anger at Berlusconi's alleged manipulation of the Italian constitution and parliament in his attempts to avoid prosecution for corruption.

The first 'No B Day' took place in December 2009, with some 90,000 demonstrators, according to police. Details on crowd numbers for Saturday's event were not immediately available.

Demonstrators flew banners with slogans including 'the only difference between God and Berlusconi is that God doesn't believe he's Berlusconi.'

The 74-year-old media mogul has been weakened in recent months by a split with former ally Gianfranco Fini.

The acrimony between the former allies has in recent months dominated news reports and much of the political debate to the expense of what critics - including the centre-left opposition, the labour unions, the main industrialists' lobby group and the Catholic Church - say are more pressing issues faced by the country.