Crumbling cookie

 

 

The Italian President Giorgio Napolitano finally drew the curtains on a week long drama in Italian parliament by refusing to accept the Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s resignation and giving him another opportunity to re-group his supporters and face a fresh vote of confidence. Barely nine months ago, Romano Prodi had managed a nine-party coalition consisting of Communists and former Christian Democrats. But fate had something else in store for him. Last week, Prodi had to resign after losing the vote in the Senate on deploying more Italian troops in Afghanistan (62% of Italians and 73% of the government’s supporters wanted to withdraw all Italian troops from Afghanistan) and the expansion of the US base at Vicenza.

The two radical Leftists, who engineered this drama by voting against Prodi’s proposal, are considered to be Trotskyites, having radical views on most important issues. But merely considering the Leftist predilections for anti-Americanism and ignoring the former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s role will only lead to incorrect analyses of the situation. Berlusconi has been using his money and media power to regain power. Tariq Ali, the noted London-based BBC broadcaster, told TSI, “Berlusconi is waiting and watching, hoping the centre-left to destoy itself and eventually paving the way for his neo-liberal agenda to succeed.” In a recent poll, Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition emerged a clear leader over centre-left Union.



Italian delights



Romano Prodi comes to power in April 2006

Resigns after losing Senate vote on 21 February 2007

President asks him to continue and seek fresh vote



The electoral reforms introduced by Prodi – a low-threshold form of proportional representation encouraging a multiplicity of parties – have fractured the unity of centre-left parties. Prodi may retain power after the Senate vote, but instability will definitely continue to reign supreme in sharply polarised Italian politics.