Silvio Berlusconi supporters take to the streets of Rome Silvio Berlusconi talks to supporters at a rally by the PDL party for its convicted leader in Rome. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP Thousands of supporters of Silvio Berlusconi descended on his palatial Rome residence on Sunday as the billionaire politician protested his innocence but indicated that for the moment his support for the government would remain. Playing the former prime minister's campaign anthem on a loop, a vocal section of the almost 10 million people who voted for his centre-right Freedom People (PdL) party in February's elections turned out to voice their anger at last week's verdict from the supreme court. The ruling - Berlusconi's first definitive conviction - has raised serious concerns for the future of Enrico Letta's coalition government, of which the PdL is a vital junior partner. But on Sunday, the 76-year-old said he continued to back the fragile set-up. "I don't believe that anyone can come and say to us that this is a subversive demonstration, as many have said," he said. And no one can come and say, as they have, that we are irresponsible. Because we have said loud and clear that the government needs to continue, needs to approve economic measures that we have requested. Speaking before a sea of flags, many of them for the Forza Italia party which Berlusconi has said he wants to re-form in September, Italy's longest-serving postwar prime minister said he felt a duty to stay in the political field. I am here. I am staying here. I won't give up. We will continue together to fight this battle for democracy and freedom," he said. Berlusconi's conviction is likely to see him spend a year under house arrest and be stripped of his seat in Italy's upper house of parliament, or senate. On Friday, Berlusconi reportedly told his MPs they should push for judicial reform or be ready for fresh elections. However there have since been signs he may want to back away from triggering an immediate crisis. Tensions between the various coalition forces continued on Saturday as one of the former premier's closest associates, Sandro Bondi, declared that, unless a way were found to ease the situation, "Italy truly risks a form of civil war with unpredictable results for all." The comments came as Giorgio Napolitano, the 88-year-old president who wearily agreed to stand for an unprecedented second term earlier this year to facilitate the formation of the Letta government, returned from his summer holiday. The president was reported to have swiftly condemned Bondi's remarks as irresponsible. Napolitano is central to the PdL's "save Silvio" strategy. Party officials have said they intend to ask him to pardon Berlusconi - a request observers said was unlikely to be granted even if the president were desperate for the parties to avoid holding fresh elections. In a move seen as aimed at lowering the tone of the PdL's outrage, the transport minister, Maurizio Lupi, announced that none of his fellow government colleagues would attend the solidarity rally outside Berlusconi's Palazzo Grazioli . Government under-secretary, Michaela Biancofiore, who is not a minister, appeared to give this short shrift, telling reporters at the demonstration she thought the rest of the ruling coalition's PdL contingent should have turned up to show support for their leader. Her loyalty to Berlusconi, she declared "will always come before a job."