ROME, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Italy’s Senate approved
economic reforms intended to reverse a collapse of market
confidence on Friday, kicking off a rapid transition that will
end the Berlusconi era and clear the way for an emergency
government within days.

The package of austerity measures demanded by the European
Union goes to the lower house which is expected to approve it on
Saturday, triggering the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi and ending a 17-year era in which he has loomed large
over Italy.

ROME, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Italy’s Senate approved
economic reforms intended to reverse a collapse of market
confidence on Friday, kicking off a rapid transition that will
end the Berlusconi era and clear the way for an emergency
government within days.

The package of austerity measures demanded by the European
Union will now go to the lower house which is expected to
approve it on Saturday, triggering the resignation of Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

ROME, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Former European Commissioner
Mario Monti has won growing support to succeed Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi and head a broadly based national unity
government but now has to face the realities of Italy’s tangled
politics.

Monti, a respected economist with connections at the top
levels of European policy making, has been seen for months as
the most likely head of a caretaker government of technocrats
which could pass vital reforms before elections in 2013.

ROME (Reuters) – Angelino Alfano, the 41-year-old lawyer Silvio Berlusconi wants to succeed him as Italian prime minister, is everything his longtime patron is not.

A cautious moderate who made his way through local politics in Sicily before being elected to the National Assembly in 2001, Alfano is a striking contrast to the flamboyant Milanese billionaire who has run Italy for most of the past two decades.

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday he would resign after suffering a humiliating setback in parliament that showed a party revolt had stripped him of a majority.

Berlusconi confirmed a statement from President Giorgio Napolitano that he would step down as soon as parliament passed urgent budget reforms demanded by European leaders after Italy was sucked into epicenter of the euro zone debt crisis.

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will resign following a humiliating vote in parliament on Tuesday, President Giorgio Napolitano said.

The president said after meeting Berlusconi that the 75-year-old prime minister would step down as soon as parliament passed urgent reforms demanded by euro zone leaders to cut Italy’s huge debt and boost stagnant growth.

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a huge humiliation in parliament on Tuesday in a vote that indicated he no longer had a majority and ratcheted up pressure for him to resign.

Berlusconi’s government won a key budget vote after the opposition abstained but obtained only 308 votes compared with an absolute majority in the lower house of 316 votes.

ROME (Reuters) – Anxious financial markets have often fixed on former European Commissioner Mario Monti as the best man to stabilize Italy when Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is dislodged, but he would face an uphill battle to form a viable government.

Monti, a respected economist with connections at the top levels of European policy making, has been seen for months as the most likely head of a caretaker government of technocrats which could pass vital reforms before elections in 2013.

ROME, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Pressure mounted on Italy’s besieged
premier Silvio Berlusconi to quit on Thursday, as six former
parliamentary loyalists called for a new government and the
squabbling cabinet failed to agree an urgent economic reform
programme.

The rebel deputies, three of whom have already left
Berlusconi’s crumbling coalition, wrote to the premier saying
Italy needed a “new political phase and a new government”.

ROME, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Pressure mounted on Italy’s besieged
premier Silvio Berlusconi to quit on Thursday, as six former
parliamentary loyalists called for a new government and the
squabbling cabinet failed to agree an urgent economic reform
programme.

The rebel deputies, three of whom have already left
Berlusconi’s crumbling government, wrote to the premier saying
Italy needed a “new political phase and a new government”.