The Italian Senate expelled former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi over his tax fraud conviction on Wednesday, humiliating the veteran center-right leader who vowed to continue leading his party from outside parliament.
The Senate vote, after months of wrangling and delay, opens an uncertain phase for Italy, with the 77-year-old media billionaire now apparently in the twilight of his political career but prepared to use all his resources to disrupt Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s coalition government.
“We are here on a bitter day, a day of mourning for democracy,” Berlusconi told supporters from his Forza Italia party in front of his central Rome residence as the Senate voted a short distance away.
Berlusconi, who has dominated Italian politics for two decades, had already pulled his party out of Letta’s coalition after seven months in government, accusing left wing opponents of staging a “coup d’etat” to eliminate him.
Stripped of his parliamentary immunity from arrest after 20 years as a lawmaker, he is now more vulnerable in a series of other criminal cases, where he is accused of offences including political bribery and paying for sex with a minor.
Reuters
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