Italian television showed scenes of pandemonium in the assembly as deputies from the government benches, many of them from the far right National Alliance movement, left their seats and stormed towards their opposition rivals.
The mayhem erupted when a deputy for the opposition leftist Progressives group accused the parties in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition of corrupt interference in the RAI affairs. The opposition has accused the coalition, whose leader Berlusconi owns three private television channels in direct competition, of attempting to carve up RAI's three channels between its members.
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