ROME — A Silvio Berlusconi loyalist warned on Saturday of a possible “civil war” if the former premier’s punishment for tax-fraud conviction is not lifted, as his aides maneuvered to win a presidential pardon so he can avoid a prison term and a ban on holding public office.
Berlusconi stalwarts also urged the 10 million Italians who voted for the conservative leader in this year’s election to fill the streets of Rome on Sunday.
Italy’s highest court on Thursday upheld Berlusconi’s four-year prison sentence, the first time that the media mogul was definitely convicted and sentenced in two decades of trials and other criminal probes.
A law to reduce prison overcrowding slashes his sentence to one year. Because he is over 70, he can choose house confinement or perform social services instead of going to prison.
Berlusconi insists he is a victim of prosecutors and judges who he says have leftist sympathies.
“In this country, democracy has been mutilated” by the high court’s decision, Daniela Santanche, one of Berlusconi’s closest associates, told Sky TG24 TV.
