Italian govt wins confidence vote in Senate on wiretapping reform

The Italian government on Thursday won a confidence vote in the upper house of parliament on a decree that will make it easier for magistrates to use spy software in investigations into public sector corruption.

The vote comes at a time of high friction within the coalition, with the small centrist Italia Viva party sparring with its much bigger partners, the Democratic Party (PD) and anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, Reuters said.

Party discipline prevailed in the Senate vote, where PM Giuseppe Conte’s administration has a particularly slender majority, and the government won the motion by 156-118.

Confidence votes are often used in Italy to accelerate the passage of legislation. If the government loses a confidence vote it is obliged to resign. The coalition will almost certainly have to call a confidence vote on the same bill in the lower house before the end of the month, or else the legislation will expire.