Italy's Berlusconi survives confidence vote

ROME - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's new government survived a vote of confidence in the lower house Wednesday by 334 votes to 240 and now faces a similar vote in the Senate.
In a stormy parliamentary debate, Berlusconi asked lawmakers to vote in favor of his new team because the left-wing opposition would bring about "a lesser democracy."
"The Italians don't want to give you the government and the parliamentary majority. They are too smart for that. They know very well that it would not be a full democracy, but a lesser democracy," said Berlusconi.
Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition comprises his own Forza Italia, the National Alliance, Christian Democrat UDC, the populist Northern League. It is supported by two small parties, the New Socialist Party and the Italian Republican Party, which have been handed posts in an enlarged ministerial line-up.

04/27/2005 17:11 GMT