International
The Italian Senate has expelled ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi from Parliament over his tax fraud conviction, ending, for now, his two-decade legislative run but not his political career.
Reporting from Rome, Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips said that despite the decision on Wednesday, there was little doubt that Berlusconi would be "carrying on shouting loudly," given that he remains a wealthy man who controls a media empire. Even so, Phillips added that there is a perception in the country that the Berlusconi era in Italian politics could be nearing an end.
Even though Berlusconi won't hold a seat in Parliament, he is expected to remain influential in Italian politics. He relaunched his Forza Italia party in October and he continues to command millions of supporters.
The former cruise ship singer turned property and media tycoon has dominated Italian politics for 20 years, serving as a prime minister three times.
But while a tax fraud conviction led to his demise in the Senate, it was the eurozone debt crisis that contributed most to his downfall, Al Jazeera's Rory Challands reported. Italy's stagnant economy was pushed to the brink and Berlusconi lost his parliamentary majority and he was finally forced from office in 2011.
The Senate vote on whether to remove Berlusconi from the chamber stems from a 2012 law that bans anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison from holding or running for public office for six years. His lawyers claim the law is unconstitutional and have questioned the rush to expel him while legal challenges are still pending.
Berlusconi has warned that the unprecedented move to expel him from Parliament would embarrass Italy internationally. He maintained his defiance as the Senate voted, declaring Wednesday a "day of mourning for democracy" before thousands of cheering, flag-waving supporters outside his palatial home.
Italy's high court on Aug. 1 upheld Berlusconi's tax fraud conviction and four-year prison term stemming from his Mediaset empire's purchase of television rights to U.S. films.
The prison term was reduced automatically to one year under a general amnesty; he will serve his time either under house arrest or through public service.
Berlusconi claims he didn't receive a fair trial and that the judges were biased and out to "eliminate" him from public office. His lawyers have also charged that the 2012 law is unconstitutional and can't be applied retroactively to crimes allegedly committed before it was passed.
They have taken their challenge to the European Court of Human Rights — even though it turns out Berlusconi didn't make much of his Senate role to begin with. Privately-held TV station La7 reported this week that Berlusconi attended just one Senate session since April's elections and that was when he did an about-face and backed the government in a confidence vote after threatening to bring it down.
Nevertheless, Berlusconi made a last-ditch bid to save his seat this week, sending a letter to opposition senators warning them that kicking a three-time premier out of public office would tarnish Italy's image abroad and weigh on their consciences, "a responsibility that in the future will shame you in front of your children, your electors and all Italians."
Berlusconi remains head of his relaunched Forza Italia party, which on Tuesday officially withdrew its support of the government of Premier Enrico Letta and is now in the opposition.
Analysts said they expected Letta's government — a hybrid of his Democratic Party and Angelino Alfano's New Center-Right — would continue in the short term.
"Berlusconi by himself doesn't have the strength to bring down Letta's government, but he's going to make it more difficult for the Democratic Party to stay in the majority," Giovanni Orsina, deputy director of the school of government at Rome's LUISS University told The Associated Press. "I think Silvio Berlusconi can do some damage to this government."
Meanwhile, Berlusconi still faces other legal problems. 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, including a seven-year prison term and lifetime ban from holding public office for his conviction of paying an underage prostitute for sex at his infamous "bunga bunga" parties and trying to cover it up. He has professed his innocence and plans to appeal.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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