Fini was also invited to step down as President of the House of Deputies. 34 deputies have left Berlusconi's party to form an autonomous group with Fini, thus reducing Berlusconi's majority to a razor-thin margin within the House.

Gianfranco Fini co-founded the PdL with the intention of creating a mass center-right party. He has stuck to this line for the past sixteen months, earning praise and respect both here and abroad. On the contrary Berlusconi's vision of the party is that it is nothing more than a political vehicle for his personal interests, a principle he has egregiously reasserted this evening.

The immediate consequences are that the final vote on the infamous law against wiretapping and press freedom has been postponed to September. The government could at this point fall on any vote of confidence.

It is likely that Berlusconi will seek to exasperate the situation to provoke general elections. He is at his best campaigning, selling used cars. However, were his government to fall, this would not necessarily lead to general elections, as a broad anti-Berlusconi coalition could conceivably be formed to continue the legislature (it would of course not be formed in those terms.)

At present his government is swamped in major scandals involving almost all of his closest collaborators. Once again, the judiciary branch and its investigators are forced to resolve a cancerous situation of generalized illegality and capillary corruption that has long since become a social and political norm. Neither the political caste nor public opinion has seen fit to remedy this gravely deteriorating situation.

There may however be limits. Watching a 74 year old lecher jerk off in public for the past 15 years may in the end test the interest of all but the very, very faithful.