Italian government wins confidence vote

Rome, May 8 (IANS) Italy's coalition government Wednesday won a confidence vote in the Senate on a labour decree which is going through parliamentary procedure to be converted into law.

The decree, which has to go back to the lower chamber for further review, had 158 "yes" votes against 122 "no" votes, Xinhua reported.

The centre-left Democratic Party (PD), of which Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is the leader, and its junior partner, the New Center-Right (NCD), supported the government.

The Five-Star Movement (M5S) of former comedian Beppe Grillo and centre-right Forza Italia (FI) of three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi -- both in the opposition -- voted against.

Wednesday's move came only days after the government won another confidence vote in the lower chamber on the same decree, which had been introduced in March to ease bureaucracy in a country which counts more than three million citizens without a job.

Decrees in Italy are issued in special cases by the government and must be converted into a law within 60 days of their publication.

The government decided to put the labour decree to confidence vote in both the chambers to speed parliamentary procedure after changes from its original version aroused controversy among Renzi's allies.

The two confidence votes were considered by political observers as a risky move as the government would have likely collapsed if it had failed to win confidence.