Silvio Berlusconi, 77, waving to supporters in downtown Rome on Wednesday.
ROME — Having spent months manufacturing procedural delays or conjuring political melodrama, Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday could no longer stave off the inevitable: Italy’s senate stripped him of his parliamentary seat, a dramatic and humiliating expulsion, even as other troubles loom on his horizon.
Mr. Berlusconi, 77, the once-powerful former prime minister, is now staring at a cascade of stubborn realities. His removal from the senate means he is without elective office for the first time in roughly two decades and that he has lost the special immunities awarded to lawmakers. With other legal cases underway against him – and the possibility that new litigation could be filed – Mr. Berlusconi is now far more vulnerable than when, as prime minister, he seemed virtually untouchable, batting away sex and corruption scandals. A billionaire media mogul, he has been deeply concerned about the impact of his legal problems on his business interests.
He also is expected to soon start performing one year of community service for the tax fraud conviction that is the basis of his removal from the senate. Moreover, a court in Milan has ruled that Mr. Berlusconi cannot seek any public office for the next two years. For a man who once dominated Italy with a ribald swagger, Mr. Berlusconi is suddenly a sharply reduced figure, having recently watched several longtime lieutenants break away from him.
Speaking before a large crowd of flag-waving supporters outside his Rome residence before the senate vote a few blocks away, Mr. Berlusconi declared: “It is a bitter day, a day of mourning for democracy.”
Mr. Berlusconi’s undisputed reign as leader of Italy’s powerful center-right political movement was dealt a crippling blow in July when the country’s highest court upheld a prison term against him on the tax fraud conviction. His effort to avoid expulsion from the Senate was fatally undermined earlier this month when his party’s unity ruptured.
Mr. Berlusconi’s longtime protégé, Angelino Alfano, announced on Nov. 15 that he and other former lieutenants would refuse to join the former prime minister’s re-branded political party, Forza Italia (or Go Italy). Instead, Mr. Alfano formed the New Center-Right, attracting many lawmakers in Parliament who had been committed to Mr. Berlusconi and eliminating the possibility he could beat an expulsion vote.
Despite his litany of troubles, lawyers for Mr. Berlusconi have dismissed as highly unlikely the possibility that he could face arrest over other legal transgressions that have shaped his political legacy, including paying for sex with a minor.
Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting.
