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Prodi faces confidence vote in Italy's Senate

Posted on: Friday, 19 May 2006, 06:25 CDT

By Robin Pomeroy

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new Prime Minister Romano Prodi faced a confidence vote in the Senate on Friday, seeking the stamp of approval for his government from the upper house of parliament where he has just two seats more than the opposition.

With such a fragile majority -- after winning a general election by the narrowest margin in post-war history -- the vote was transformed from what is usually a symbolic rite of passage into a real test which could even sink his government.

The center-left administration has 158 Senate seats against 156 for the opposition led by Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister who still contests the April 9-10 election result and has predicted the new government will soon collapse.

"Well see in a couple of hours," Prodi replied to hecklers from the opposition benches who suggested just that, as he addressed the Senate ahead of the vote.

"We have a solid and cohesive majority in both chambers," he said to howls of derision from center-right members.

With the extra support of most of Italy's seven honorary senators for life, Prodi is likely to survive this first test, but just hours ahead of the vote, cracks were already showing in his coalition that stretches from the center to the hard left.

A junior government party, Italy of Values, said it might vote against Prodi to protest against his decision not to appoint a cabinet minister in charge of the interests of Italians abroad. At the last minute, the party appeared to have withdrawn its threat.

Prodi would probably have survived such a desertion, but even the talk of it just two days after becoming prime minister was a bad omen for future votes where he will have to rely on coalition loyalty to get legislation past a hostile opposition.

LESSONS

In his Senate speech, Prodi reiterated Italy would withdraw its more than 2,000 troops from Iraq before the end of the year, but stressed he would still pursue a close relationship with the United States in fighting terrorism.

"Something that struck me (in the parliamentary debate) was the discussion about the fight on terrorism, and I have to say we won't accept lessons from anyone on that," he said.

Berlusconi prided himself on his close relationship with President George W. Bush, whereas Prodi is keen to see Italy work closer with the European Union on foreign policy. But the new prime minister said he had good relations with Washington.

"As president of the (European) Commission, I constructed, together with the United States, a network of new, strong, serious, transparent relations for the fight against terrorism."

An Italian general in Iraq, Natalino Madeddu, was quoted in Friday's Corriere della Sera daily as saying it was "reasonable" to consider a pull-out in 60-80 days.

Prodi will face tougher tasks at home, where the economy has stagnated in two of the last three years and the budget deficit remains stubbornly above the EU limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.

Source: REUTERS

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