Berlusconi defeated, decides to back Italy government

“The majority of Italians are telling us—I should say they are yelling at us—that they can't take any more of these scenes of bloodshed in the political arena, and (politicians) who fight over everything but nothing ever changes,” he said.

Many center-left lawmakers, as well as ordinary Italians, have expressed disgust that the government was essentially teetering over the legal woes of a single man, since the crisis began over Berlusconi's attempt to avoid being kicked out of the Senate for his tax fraud conviction.

A law passed in 2012 says anyone receiving sentences longer than two years cannot hold public office for six years.

Berlusconi has challenged the law's constitutionality and has accused judges who handed down the sentence of trying to eliminate him from Italy's political life.