Berlusconi wins backing for new government

Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s new government won approval today in Italy’s lower house of parliament, following a combative speech in which he pledged to boost the economy and promised “extraordinary” results ahead of next year’s elections.

The confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies – won 334-240 by the centre-right coalition – came after Berlusconi resigned last week in a bid strengthen his fractious coalition. The Senate, where he also has a majority, was due to vote tomorrow.

In his half-hour speech to the chamber, Berlusconi promised to improve the economy.

“Stop once and for all being defeatists,” Berlusconi told opposition MPs, suggesting that such gloomy talk discourages investment and spending, which could reinvigorate the economy.

“I’ve never seen anybody achieve good results setting out from a pessimistic position,” the premier said, taking a swipe at the centre-left government that he routed from power in 2001 elections.

“We are getting ready for an extraordinary year, ahead of victory in one year,” he said.

Berlusconi formed a new cabinet last week after he was forced to resign in a power struggle with his conservative allies following an embarrassing defeat in regional elections.

Some of the premier’s conservative allies have been lukewarm, but they have all vowed to support the new cabinet in parliament.

“No ambushes, this is not our strategy,” Marco Follini, a coalition partner and former deputy premier who decided to stay out of the new cabinet, was quoted as saying.

The roll-call vote decreased the chances of Berlusconi losing the confidence vote. Coalition MPs have occasionally defected from their party lines in secret balloting.

Berlusconi has proposed that the parties in the governing coalition form a single alliance to run in the 2006 election. Today, he kept up the pressure on his allies by saying he would not run in next year’s election ”under the current conditions.”

“I don’t see why voters should trust a team that has showed they can’t stick together,” he told reporters, according to news reports.

Berlusconi renewed pledges to develop Italy’s poorer south and help families whose buying power he said had suffered since the introduction of the euro.

Away from Berlusconi’s seat of power in Rome, Milan prosecutors requested indictments yesterday against him and 12 others on charges that include tax fraud and embezzlement, following a four-year investigation into the premier’s media empire.

Berlusconi has always denied any wrongdoing, saying he is a victim of left-leaning prosecutors.

One of his lawyers, Niccolo Ghedini, said Berlusconi resigned from the management of his media empire in 1993, before the alleged offences took place.