Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has won a confidence vote with a crushing majority after Silvio Berlusconi abandoned his bid to topple the government.
Berlusconi's humiliating climbdown came after defections in his party robbed him of the backing he needed to bring down the government.
Out of 305 senators who took part in the vote, 235 were in favour of Mr Letta's coalition government and 70 against with no abstentions - far higher than the majority required of 153 senators.
At the weekend, Berlusconi ordered five ministers from his centre-right People of Freedom party (PdL) to resign from the cabinet, prompting a constitutional crisis.
The three-time premier was incensed at a vote planned on Friday that could strip him of his Senate seat following his tax fraud conviction and four-year prison sentence.
Since inconclusive elections in February, Italy has been run by an unusual left-right coalition, headed by the centre-left Democratic Party leader Mr Letta.
Shortly before the vote took place, Berlusconi took the floor in an unexpected address after Mr Letta made an impassioned plea to keep his five-month-old coalition alive.
Berlusconi said he had changed his mind after hearing Mr Letta's promise to lower taxes and mindful of the need for reforms.
"Italy needs a government that can produce structural and institutional reforms that the country needs to modernise," Berlusconi said in his brief remarks.
"We have decided, not without internal strife, to vote in confidence."
Mr Letta shook his head as the billionaire media mogul was speaking and the address was followed by stunned silence.
The surprise about-turn made victory for Mr Letta's coalition a certainty, but the vote still went ahead.
Berluscon's shock announcement was immediately cheered by the markets, with shares in Milan jumping 1.45% higher.
Mr Letta earlier asked politicians to vote for him, saying Italians were tired of "blood in the arena".
"Italy runs a risk that could be a fatal risk. Seizing this moment or not depends on us, on a yes or a no," Mr Letta said in his address to the Senate.
"This is an historic situation."
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