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| Silvio Burlusconi |
Italy's parliament on Wednesday expelled Silvio Berlusconi over a tax fraud conviction in a humiliating vote that will not be the last act of the billionaire tycoon's tumultuous career as he vowed to "fight on".
The three-time former prime minister told thousands of supporters outside his residence in Rome that he would stay on in politics despite the vote, saying it was "a day of bitterness, a day of mourning for democracy".
"We are not going to retire to some convent," Berlusconi said in a defiant speech, as fellow senators held rounds of voting that forced him from parliament for the first time in his 20-year political career.
Motions put forward by Berlusconi's allies in the Senate in an attempt to block the expulsion procedure were rejected one by one in a dramatic session in which dozens of lawmakers took the floor to support him.
One loyalist senator even compared the scandal-tainted Berlusconi to South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and two rival senators almost came to blows.
AFP