Silvio Berlusconi expelled from Italy's senate Silvio Berlusconi delivered a defiant speech to his supporters in central Rome, declaring "a day of mourning for democracy" as Italy's senate voted on Wednesday to expel the former prime minister from parliament as a result of his conviction for tax fraud. "We are ready for death," began Mr Berlusconi, citing the words of the Italian national anthem played to a crowd of more than 1,000 flag-waving supporters outside his residence. "This is a bitter day," he proclaimed, attacking a "leftist" senate backed by a biased judiciary that he said had unjustly convicted him in August. The billionaire businessman boycotted the day-long debate on the motion to expel him from parliament where he had held a seat since his first of three election victories in 1994. One of his newspapers branded his political enemies the "firing squad" while loyalists in the senate denounced the vote as a political assassination. Mr Berlusconi declared his intention to remain "in the field" as leader of his opposition Forza Italia party, even though an anti-corruption law passed in 2012 bars him from holding public office for six years and his conviction for tax fraud carries a one-year sentence he is to serve under house arrest or through community service. "After 20 years he is leaving the scene like Al Capone," declared Antonio di Pietro, a former anti-corruption magistrate, comparing Mr Berlusconi to the Chicago gangster who was finally jailed on federal charges of tax evasion. Renato Brunetta, his loyal parliamentary whip, countered: "Silvio Berlusconi has suffered a political assassination but he is far from dead." James Walston, political scientist at the American University of Rome, cautioned: "Even when it's over, it won't be over." With his vast financial resources and media influence, commentators say Mr Berlusconi will remain a thorn in the side of Prime Minister Enrico Letta's government even though the centre-right leader lost over 6m votes in last February's elections compared with 2008. The next appointment at the ballot box is likely to come in May 2014 when Forza Italia will campaign in European parliamentary elections on a eurosceptic, anti-German and anti-immigration platform, competing with the Five Star Movement for a protest vote that has flourished amid Italy's longest postwar recession. The depth of Mr Berlusconi's drawn-out demise was exposed this month when his centre-right People of Liberty formally split over his intention to pull out of the left-right coalition government formed with Mr Letta's Democrats last April. As a result of that split, Mr Letta's coalition won a confidence vote in the senate on Tuesday night that pushed through the 2014 budget. The legislation moves next to the lower house for the last stages of approval. Mr Berlusconi's rebranded but reduced Forza Italia - Go Italy - is not even the largest opposition party in parliament, outnumbered by the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which stunned mainstream parties in last February's elections by taking more than a quarter of the vote. Despite the drama unfolding in Rome, financial markets reacted calmly to events, having witnessed Mr Berlusconi's diminished influence on October 2 when he was forced to abandon an attempt to topple the coalition after "rebels" in his own party broke ranks. Fears of snap elections have given way to market hopes that Mr Letta will survive until early 2015. Mr Letta took heart from his new majority in the senate in passing the budget by 171 votes to 135, telling a news conference that it gave the government "strength, cohesion and a perspective for the whole of 2014." He promised to accelerate reforms. The senate debate began with speeches by Mr Berlusconi's loyalists declaring the death of democracy, but not of their leader. The 30 senators of deputy prime minister Angelino Alfano's breakaway party, the New Centre Right, voted against Mr Berlusconi's eviction in a demonstration of personal loyalty to their former leader. But they were not enough to save him against the combined forces of Mr Letta's Democrats, the Five Star Movement and centrist politicians that included former prime minister Mario Monti. Mara Carfagna, a former beauty queen elevated by Mr Berlusconi to ministerial status in his last government, commented that the senate was writing "a memorable page in the history of Italy, the darkest . . . and with the smell of bitter almonds, almost like cyanide."