Italy govt wins Senate confidence vote on wiretapping reform

The Italian government on Thursday won a confidence vote in the upper house of parliament on a decree that will make it easier for magistrates to use spy software in investigations into public sector corruption.

The vote comes at a time of high friction within the coalition, with the small centrist Italia Viva party sparring on a daily basis with its much bigger partners, the Democratic Party (PD) and anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.

However, party discipline prevailed in the Senate vote, where Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's administration has a particularly slender majority, and the government won the motion by 156-118.