Down but not out, Berlusconi plots next moves No mercy: a lone demonstrator protests outside Rome's Palace of Justice where the appeal decision was handed down Voice shaking and anger written in his face, Silvio Berlusconi has hit back at his conviction for tax fraud by Italy's supreme court by appealing to the voting public to join him in "our battle for freedom." A trial that began seven years ago came to a resounding and definitive conclusion on Thursday night, with the former three-time prime minister and now convicted criminal facing the prospect of a year under house arrest in one of his many splendid villas. But as Mr Berlusconi launched his campaign to take his fight from the courts to the political battlefield, it would seem that Italy risks becoming the hostage, even as it struggles to emerge from its longest postwar recession. The survival of Enrico Letta's fragile coalition government depends upon the support of Mr Berlusconi's centre-right People of Liberty, and on Friday the centre-left prime minister appealed for "collective interests to prevail for the good of the country," adding with understatement that he was aware of "the politically delicate moment." In a nine-minute video message, Mr Berlusconi, 76, made no mention of the government. He laid out instead his plans to relaunch his party under its original name of Forza Italia (Go Italy), appealing to voters who stayed away in February's deadlocked elections to back him in his mission to "modernise" Italy and reform an "out of control" judiciary. That means Mr Berlusconi will not pull the plug on Mr Letta immediately. He needs time to consider anointing a political heir before he begins his enforced seclusion, which may not begin until mid-October for procedural reasons. A largely hitherto unnoticed consequence of Mr Berlusconi's definitive conviction - his first in dozens of court cases over the past 20 years - is that he will be barred by an anti-corruption law passed by Mario Monti's previous government from running for election for at least six years. That same law also requires the senate to consider stripping Mr Berlusconi of the seat he won in February. Loyalists of the billionaire media magnate are already warning Mr Letta's Democrats that the government will fall should they vote to do so. The process could begin next month after the summer recess. Unless he chooses to resign his seat, which seems unlikely, Mr Berlusconi still has the ability to turn the table on his opponents, even as commentators began writing his political obituary. "Italy now enters a post-Berlusconi era," opined Stefano Folli, influential columnist for Il Sole 24 Ore, a newspaper owned by the main business lobby. "The conviction puts the former premier on the margins of parliamentary life," he wrote. Not so fast, responded Mr Berlusconi's media machine, with Il Giornale, the family-owned Milan daily, running a banner headline: "Berlusconi - it is not over." And as noted by Libero, a rightwing daily, the Berlusconi brand - political and commercial - has durability in the figure of Marina, 46-year-old chairwoman of the family holding company Fininvest and eldest of his five children. "The Marina hypothesis (of taking the party leadership) is more in the field than ever," Libero said of the woman once named by Forbes as the 33rd most powerful in the world. Mr Berlusconi's newly adopted role of martyr - "no one can comprehend the burden of the true and real violence I have been subjected to" - is already resonating among many Italians who ask why he was singled out for conviction in a nation of tax dodgers. But taking the moral high road, lone voices among the Democrats are asking how their party can remain in coalition with one led by a convicted tax fraudster. "It is the time for truth and its consequences," declared Sandra Zampa, a member of parliament, urging the party to vote Mr Berlusconi out of the senate. Most are counselling caution, however. Wounded and factionalised after their poor result in February, the Democrats are in no state to go to the polls until they find a new leader at a congress this year. Matteo Renzi, Florence's young reformist mayor who is one of several challengers, has yet to comment on the crisis. Mario Calabresi, editor of La Stampa, warned of the danger of a brutal election campaign the country cannot afford. "Is the country to pay the bill for Berlusconi's conviction?" he asked.