国际英语新闻：Berlusconi confidence vote set for Dec. 14

ROME, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Amid the most serious crisis of his political career, beleaguered Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said that if his government loses a no-confidence vote set for Dec. 14 he will resign and call for new elections.

Critics of the prime minister have taken steps to make sure the country' s 2011 budget -- which by law must be passed before the end of the year -- will be voted on during the first 10 days of December, allowing the no-confidence vote to take place sooner. As things stand, Berlusconi will make his case to lawmakers on Dec. 13, and the vote will follow the next day.

In televised remarks late Wednesday, Berlusconi's first national address since the political crisis reached a fever pitch after a former ally called for Berlusconi' s resignation Nov. 7, the prime minister remained emboldened.

He argued that his support among Italian citizens was stronger than reported and predicted he would win the confidence vote. But he also allowed that if he loses he would step down and permit new elections.

According to two new polls, it appears that Berlusconi's support levels are beginning to level off after a rapid decline. The polling company Opinioni released a poll Thursday showing Berlusconi retained the support of 27.9 percent of Italians, a slight rise from the previous poll but still within the margin of error.

A poll released a day earlier by IPR showed that 28.5 percent of Italians said they would vote for Berlusconi's party if an election were held immediately, down slightly from a similar poll two weeks earlier.

"Since he returned to Italy [from the Group of 20 summit in South Korea] Berlusconi has tried to cast himself as the victim of unsavory critics," Maria Rossi, co-director of Opinioni, told Xinhua.

"That tactic is starting to gain a little traction. Unless something unexpected happens, we may be seeing floor for the prime minister' s approval levels," Rossi said.

Even if Berlusconi's support level seems to be holding steady, bad news keeps rolling in.

The lower house of parliament announced Wednesday that it would hold a no-confidence vote against Sandro Bondi, the Minister of Culture and a key Berlusconi ally, in connection with a wall that collapsed in the archeological ruins of Pompeii.

Earlier in the week, Vittorio Feltri, the editor of Il Giornale, the newspaper controlled by Berlusconi's brother, gave a rare criticism of the prime minister, calling him "tired and confused."

On Monday, best-selling author and anti-Mafia activist Roberto Saviano told a national television audience that Berlusconi and his allies were helping the Mafia grow in power after a generation of decline.

And on Thursday, the Italian constitutional court announced it would rule on the legality of the law Berlusconi passed in 2007 to guarantee immunity from criminal prosecution for himself and a handful of other top-level government leaders.

The outcome of the next round of elections could depend more on which blocs ally themselves with others than with Berlusconi's popularity.

The IPR poll, which indicated that 28.5 percent of Italians would vote for Berlusconi, also showed 12.5 percent would vote for the Northern League, a key Berlusconi supporter.

Gianfranco Fini and Pier Ferdinando Casini, both former Berlusconi allies, polled at between 5 percent and 6 percent, with several smaller centrist and right-of-center parties under 3 percent.

That meant it remains possible that Berlusconi could manage to cobble together enough support to form a new government, especially if he and his allies manage to exceed expectations at the polls.

Another possibility would be the creation of a centrist alliance led by Fini, Casini, plus former Rome mayors Walter Veltroni and Francesco Rutelli (who have a combined 26 percent support level) and some smaller centrist parties.

A wildcard in that scenario could be Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the president of Ferrari and one of the architects of the dramatic turnaround of Italian carmaker Fiat.

Cordero di Montezemolo, 63, has no previous political experience but in recent days the Italian press has speculated that he could use his high profile in business as a springboard into politics the way Berlusconi did in the early 1990s.