ROME: Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister of 17 years, resigned on Saturday after parliament's lower chamber passed European-demanded reforms, ending a political era and setting in motion a transition aimed at bringing the country back from the brink of economic crisis.
Amid a chorus of "alleluia" and chants of "buffoon, buffoon" and celebrations in downtown Rome, Berlusconi's motorcade entered and exited the presidential palace where the 75-year-old billionaire media magnate tendered his resignation to president Giorgio Napolitano.
In scenes reminiscent of the departure of his mentor, Socialist prime minister Bettino Craxi in 1993, a pale and isolated Berlusconi was harried by angry crowds hurling insults and coins at his limousine as handed his resignation. In a bitter farewell, he said, "In the end the logic of petty blackmail and opportunism prevailed, the oldest vice in Italian politics."
Berlusconi himself faces charges of having sex with an under-age prostitute, besides ongoing cases of fraud in business. The man tipped to succeed Berlusconi and steer the country out of its debt woes is former European commissioner Mario Monti, a 68-year-old technocrat considered the veritable "anti-Berlusconi".
Until last reports, the president was in talks as Berlusconi's long-term ally, the Northern League, refused to support a Monti government. Their opposition isn't expected to scuttle Napolitano's plans to ask Monti to try to form an interim government as early as Sunday, but it could make Monti's job even more difficult.
Berlusconi's resignation was set in motion after the chamber of deputies, with a vote of 380-26 with two abstentions, approved economic reforms, which include severe pressure from the financial markets to have a new government before markets open.
But even if Monti is tapped by Sunday evening, he would still have to assemble a cabinet, present his rescue strategy to parliament and then seek a confidence vote after a debate. All that could take several days.