The vote to authorize the arrest of Alfonso Papa, a deputy in the ruling PDL party, was backed by Berlusconi’s Northern League coalition partners, despite efforts by the prime minister to head off the vote, held as a secret ballot.
The vote went 319 in favor of allowing the arrest against 293, underlining the fragility of Berlusconi’s majority in the lower house of parliament.
Papa is accused by prosecutors in Naples of being part of a network around Luigi Bisignani, a consultant with connections at the highest level of Italian politics and business, who was arrested last month.
Berlusconi, mired in scandal and facing four separate trials on corruption and sex charges, is struggling to keep control of his government, deeply divided over issues ranging from economic policy to the war in Libya.
Struggling in opinion polls which point to the opposition center-left winning any election held now, Berlusconi also faces a growing mood of public disgust at the repeated scandals which have tarnished the image of Italy’s political elite.
The Papa case has focused on allegations of a shadowy conspiracy to obtain confidential information from judicial proceedings to enable certain favored individuals to avoid investigation.
Investigators also believe the suspects obtained information about other high profile individuals with the intention of smearing and blackmailing them.
