Silvio Berlusconi's 'iron fist' laws approved

All across Europe attitudes are stiffening toward immigration, nowhere more so than in Italy.

Soldiers could be sent into Italy's cities, illegal immigrants will be imprisoned for four years and all non-serious court cases will be frozen for a year under new measures approved by Italy's senate.

The senate voted 166 to 123 to approve a wide-ranging package of measures which will allow Silvio Berlusconi to govern Italy with an iron fist.

Mr Berlusconi, 71, will now be able to use as many as 3,000 soldiers for up to six months in order to fight crime. Previously, the use of the army had to be agreed by the parliament beforehand. The first destination for the troops is likely to be Naples, where Mr Berlusconi faces violent opposition to his plans for dealing with the city's rubbish crisis.

The perma-tanned billionaire will also no longer have to worry about his ongoing court case for allegedly corrupting David Mills, the husband of Tessa Jowell, the Olympic minister. Mr Berlusconi is accused of giving Mr Mills £350,000 in order to stand favourable witness in a separate trial. Both men deny wrong-doing.

The trial could be suspended under a measure designed to free up Italy's judiciary to concentrate on murder and Mafia cases. More than 100,000 "non-serious" trials, including trials for fraud, manslaughter, theft and kidnapping, will shut down for a year to give the courts a chance to catch up on their backlog.

The National Association of Magistrates said the move would cause "unprecedented chaos" and offered Mr Berlusconi the chance to cut a deal: personal immunity from prosecution if he would let the trials continue.

Mr Berlusconi said he was "outraged" by suggestions that he would pass a law in order to have his own trial suspended. He vowed that the Mills case would continue, despite the new decree.

Another controversial measure in the package will see illegal immigrants imprisoned for up to four years. Landlords who rent homes to illegal immigrants will have their properties seized. Mr Berlusconi has pinned much of the blame for Italy's crime problem on immigrants nad has vowed to "wash the piazzas clean of uncertainty". Immigrants who claim to have family in Italy will be given DNA tests.

Quite surprising for someone who said "Personally, I don't think you can prosecute someone for their illegal presence in our country" , quoted by Euronews some days before.

Anna Finocchiaro, a spokesman for the opposition Democratic Party, said there had been no consultation by the government over the new measures. "We have to have a dialogue over our shared principles and rules," she said.

"We will vote no. The text has two mistaken measures, which are dangerous and against the Constitution. First there is the criminalisation of immigration, and the second is the suspension of trials".

However, Mr Berlusconi's enormous majority in the Senate easily overwhelmed the opposition. The measure will now be ratified by the Lower House of parliament. No date has been set, but the parliament has 30 days in which to carry out a vote.