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"He won, but he lost.” This is how La Stampa, with the headline "Vote of confidence, but with eyes on the elections”, sums up yesterday’s paradoxical parliamentary vote of confidence for Silvio Berlusconi. Italy’s prime minister would have actually fallen flat without the backing of 32 “rebel” MPs led by his ex-ally and president of the Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini. "A happy birthday of shit,” groused Berlusconi in the heat of the moment. Il Cavaliere, who turned 74 yesterday, will now have to make terms with Fini – which will inevitably rile his other ally, the Northern League. Hence La Stampa’s forecast that "yesterday’s tremor won’t be the first or last of the upheavals that are bound to rock the country for some time to come”.
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