Berlusconi’s Austerity Plan Gets Final Parliament Approval
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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s austerity plan won final approval by Parliament, opening the way for measures intended to balance the budget by 2014 and keep the region’s debt crisis at bay.
The Chamber of Deputies voted 314 to 280 in Rome to pass the package of spending cuts and tax increases. Berlusconi had staked his government’s future on the plan, surviving confidence votes on the measures in the Chamber earlier today and the upper house Senate yesterday.