The deliberations of the Senate committee are expected to last for several weeks, before they reach a decision. According to the "Severino law", which became enacted by the Monti government in December 2012, anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison is deemed ineligible to hold public office for a period of six years (or eight years if convicted for "abuse of power"), and should immediately be expelled from the parliament. Berlusconi has argued that the "Severino law" can not be used to expel persons convicted for crimes committed before December 2012, and pleaded for the proceedings to be postponed until the European Court of Human Rights or Italy's constitutional court had ruled, whether or not he was correct about his interpretation of the law. Berlusconi also stated that he in any case had decided to appeal the court ruling against him to the European Court of Human Rights, as he still claimed the ruling itself to be a political and unjust attempt by his opponents, to deprive him of his political power. The response by Prime Minister Enrico Letta's centre-left Democratic Party was however to reject Berlusconi's plea, accusing him of only launching time-wasting maneuvers. Berlusconi's PDL party then made a threat to withdraw their support for the government if the Senate committee expelled Berlusconi as senator. The Democratic Party replied by warning the PDL that they would reject any blackmail attempts, and in any case only would vote in the Senate committee according to the standard of the Italian law. Ahead of the Senate committee's voting, the leading criminal lawyer Paola Severino, who helped design the "Severino law", stated to the La Repubblica newspaper that this specific law in her professional opinion clearly also applied for crimes being committed before its enactment in December 2012.