he made mention of sylvia berlusconi in his speech that is ongoing. but he made mention of berlusconi in his speech saying in a democracy, a sentence must be served. almost implying and saying pretty much clearly that yes, you are allowed to a defense, and it is not fair to be either against nor to get special treatment, either. so he is speaking, again, about stability that has been the big word that he has been using in the last weeks regarding the future of italy and he has apparently seized the moment quite well in the sense that a break-up of this pdl is a big step. the number is crucial. they need about 24 votes in order to get a majority and to move forward with this government. so just in a few hours time we will know whether he's been able to do that. >> the ecb vice president who is quoted ahead of the centralback's meeting today in paris, draghi is expected to hold rates at 0.5%. he may give further clues as to the possibility or timing of another ltro to support the currency block struggling lenders. annette is live in paris on germany ahea

certainly mid october will be the point where sylvia berlusconi will be told to leave the senate andhe is removed it will be a big blow for two reasons. first of all this is a man of course who for everything is about image and will have the status of being a senate member take end away from him and a former politician and convicted criminal and it will also mean he is stripped of his political immunity therefore he could potentially be arrested should further allegations come up against sylvia berlusconi so in mid october he could be ejected and it's a key point for him because that is when he gets to decide how he will serve his prison sentence out and he can serve under the guidance of social services or house arrest and won't go to jail because under a law he passed nobody over 70 goes to prison and he just turned 77 years old. >> reporter: all right, for the moment phil is live for us in rome, thanks for that. staying in italy pope francis arrived in the italian town of cc and will pray of the st. whose name he adopted and meeting with children and the sick and he wants the chur

but sylvia berlusconi's attempts to bring down the eitalian government seem to have run into trouble. last night, members of his own party played down the rebellion with one senator calling the crisis a distant prospect. berlusconi needs 19 votes tomorrow to remain in power. claudia, things have heated up heading into this week with regard to italian politics. do we think now that letta is going to get that confidence vote that he needs tomorrow? >> well, it's still too early to tell. today is crucial for him. a phone call that was aired last night in which sylvia berlusconi accuses the president of having intervened in an appeal escort by calling them and forcing them to reconvene and come out with a harsher verdict for sylvia berlusconi certainly is playing a role here today. that is one more storm in which berlusconi finds himself, including the fact as you were mentioning yesterday it seemed as though his own party saying maybe the support to go forward is there. what that means is that the idea that sylvia berlusconi has worked hard at saving himself. it's prevailed to the intere

but the feeling is that sylvia berlusconi will go.political analyst this morning and said sylvia berlusconi is a man who fights and used to getting his own way and seems to be unravelling and what can he do? he said this is the end for sylvia berlusconi and what will happen is if he is impeached as we expect he will no longer be a political figure, he will be nothing more than a convicted criminal with a political past all be it one that owns an empire and very rich but also he will be stripped of his political immunity and that means that potentially he could be arrested and could be investigated if any other allegations are made towards him. of course october, mid october not just when he would literally be ejected from this building and told he has to leave, it's also the time he has to make a decision on what kind of format he wants his prison sentence to take and has two choices here, he can serve the prison sentence under the guide of social services or serve it under house arrest. he has a huge home just a kilometer and will no

sylvia berlusconi at the weekend told his ministers to resign and not support the government's confidence vote. plenty of pdl members have come out and said they will support letta. earlier on, there was a report and were sthe sticking the knife into mr. berlusconi. others came out and said, no, we are going to support the government. bit looks like letta will indeed get the support he needs. and the yields have come down 4.37% is where we stand at the moment. remember, they were yielding 4.7% two days or so ago. gilt yields, 2.7%. a little bit of data today out of the uk, construction pmi still hot suggesting we've got a fairly robust economy. that is where we stand right now in europe. back to you. >> all right. ross, thank you very much. when we come back on "squawk box," he is an icon of technology. but some microsoft shareholders wants bill gates to back it in. we have that story, it leads our executive edge right after this. plus, we are counting down to the 8:15 a.m. release of the adp employment report on this jobs on wednesday. "squawk box" will be right back. >>> welcome back, e