Berlusconi Pleads For Support in Key Vote

Online, December 13, 2010 (Newswire.com) - ROME, (UPI) -- A day before a vote that could bring down his government, Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi appealed Monday for support in the name of stability.

"Opening up a crisis now" would be "folly," the prime minister said in an address to the Senate, The New York Times reported.

If Berlusconi loses a confidence vote in either house Tuesday, he would be forced to resign and Italy would face early elections -- which his center-right People of Liberty alliance might well win.

Berlusconi lost his majority in the lower house in July when Gianfranco Fini, co-founder of his coalition, broke with him.

Fini's faction says it will join centrist and leftist parties to vote against Berlusconi Tuesday. But they may not have enough seats to form a new majority.

Berlusconi, in his "appeal to the moderates," said he planned to "reinforce the government team."