A coup d’etat!

That is how Silvio Berlusconi is describing Wednesday’s vote in which he looks set to be expelled from the Italian Senate.

It follows the former prime minister’s conviction for tax fraud.

Berlusconi, 77, was found guilty in August of masterminding a complex and illegal system to reduce the tax bill of his media company Mediaset.

A court in Milan sentenced him to four years in prison, commuted to a year under house arrest or in community service.

The billionaire media mogul, who has always protested his innocence, says Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano should grant him a pardon.