ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
Supporters of Italy's embattled former President Silvio Berlusconi gathered outside his Rome residence on Wednesday ahead of an evening vote in the Italian Senate that is expected to see the veteran center-right leader stripped of his seat in parliament over a tax fraud conviction.
Berlusconi is expected to address the rally as voting takes place, underlining that he will remain a troublesome opponent to the government even outside parliament.
The protest will be "only the beginning", Berlusconi warned earlier this week, saying it would be followed by a series of actions to "defend democracy", though he no longer commands enough support in parliament to bring down the government.
A Senate committee has proposed declaring Berlusconi ineligible for parliament after he was convicted of masterminding a complex system of illegally inflated invoices to cut the tax bill for his Mediaset television empire.
Under a law passed with
