The new center-right government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi won a confidence vote in the House on Wednesday.
The vote saw 335 MPs in favor and 272 opposed, while one MP, Riccardo Merlo who was elected abroad, abstained.
A confidence debate is under way in the Senate which is slated to vote on Thursday.
Berlusconi is expected to meet on Friday with the leader of the center-left opposition, ex-Rome mayor Walter Veltroni, to discuss common ground on institutional, economic and political reforms.
