 Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi survived a confidence vote in Parliament on Friday, but his narrow majority raises doubts over his ability to govern effectively when the country needs a steady hand during its economic crisis. Berlusconi faced a confidence vote in Parliament Friday that is seen as the most serious threat to his... (Associated Press) 
 
 Berlusconi's conservatives won in a 316-301 vote in Parliament's lower house. Had he lost, Mr. Berlusconi would have had to resign, marking the end of an 18-year political era in which the billionaire businessman shaped Italian politics in his own image, entwining the country’s fate with his own. This week, Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, who takes over the helm of the European Central Bank on Nov. 1, urged the government to act more quickly to implement reforms that can spur growth _ beyond the austerity package that put Italy on the path to balance its budget by 2013.
– Silvio Berlusconi squeaked through a confidence vote in the Italian parliament today, but the agonizingly close 316-301 vote didn’t exactly inspire, well, confidence. Berlusconi’s majority is so slim that it effectively cannot pass legislation, the New York Times reports, and analysts say that the slightest bump in the road could break the fragile coalition entirely. Berlusconi called the vote himself after failing a routine vote this week and refusing calls to step down. Berlusconi survived thanks to loyalists afraid his government would be replaced by a non-political technocratic one seeking structural changes to Italy’s economy—a government they’d have no place in. Of course, many business leaders were hoping for exactly that. “The best signal that Italy could have sent to the markets would have been to boot Mr. Berlusconi out, but it has failed to do so,” one economic think tank director tells the AP. Opponents, meanwhile, complained that Berlusconi can win confidence votes, but cannot govern. “He only knows how to stay stuck in his seat using tricks,” one opposition leader complained.