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Italians voiced shock Wednesday after violent protests were sparked by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's narrow victory in a vote in Parliament that leaves his government hanging by a thread. Berlusconi survived a no-confidence vote in the lower house, following the rebellion of Speaker of Parliament Gianfranco Fini, who left the ruling coalition with his allies earlier this year. The victory ignited running street battles between hundreds of anti-Berlusconi protesters and riot police, in which more than 100 people were injured in the tourist-heavy center of the Italian capital. "What happened yesterday was not an expression of freedom. It was an attack by organized groups of hooligans," Berlusconi said Wednesday. Protesters set cars alight, hurled cobblestones and beat officers with metal bars. A total of 26 protesters have been charged, police said Wednesday. "Rome was defiled like it hadn't been since 1977 during the terrible Years of Lead," when Italy was rocked by violent political militancy, including bombings, shootings and kidnappings, said the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno said the clashes were "shocking" and likened them to the "gratuitous violence that was on the streets of Rome in the 1970s and that I hoped never to see again." Alemanno estimated the damage at $27 million. AFP |
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