Posted on 04/12/2006 3:54:01 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday denounced what he called widespread fraud at Italy's general election and demanded his center-left rival Romano Prodi be stripped of victory.
Prodi immediately condemned Berlusconi's efforts to overturn the results of the April 9-10 election, the closest in modern Italian history, and his allies warned that the prime minister was stoking dangerous political tensions.
The stand-off between the leaders of Italy's two main coalitions pushed Europe's fourth largest economy into uncharted waters and toward a full-blown crisis.
"The election result has to change because there was widespread fraud," Berlusconi told reporters after meeting President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
"There was fraud that doesn't go in all directions. It just goes one way," he added, suggesting that the alleged ballot box irregularities had all been at the expense of his alliance.
Prodi, attending a victory rally in his home city of Bologna in northern Italy, dismissed the allegation.
"We have won ... Berlusconi has to go," said Prodi, a former president of the European Commission whose victory has been acknowledged by France, Spain, Luxembourg and the European Commission but not Washington.
According to Interior Ministry data, the center-left won the election for the lower house of parliament by just 25,000 votes out of 38.1 million ballots cast.
Berlusconi earlier this week demanded a review of 40,000 disputed ballots that were not included in the final tally because of alleged errors in the way they were filled out.
On Wednesday, he suggested the problem might be much bigger, saying statements from 60,000 voting stations across Italy had to be checked "one by one."
'POISON'
Checks on disputed ballots are routinely carried out by the authorities and these were expected to be completed by Friday.
The prime minister said he thought the review would take "several days" to complete.
Some of Berlusconi's allies applauded his move, but center-left leaders were unanimous in their condemnation.
"Berlusconi, stop poisoning Italy and delegitimising the Italians' vote," said Piero Fassino, head of the biggest leftist party, the Democrats of the Left.
A statement by center-left allies said: "Berlusconi must recognize the result of the polls and stop feeding this dangerous climate of tension."
The prime minister suggested on Tuesday that with Italy split down the middle by the vote, the center-left and centre-right should form a government of national unity to tackle the country's economic problems.
But the idea was dismissed out of hand by Prodi, who said on Wednesday he was already preparing to govern.
"It's not true that the country will be split forever. It is today, but we will put it back together again," he said.
Even without accusations of fraud, Italy faced at least a month of limbo before a new government can be sworn in.
Under the constitution, it is up to the head of state to nominate a new government after consultation with party leaders.
Prodi had wanted Ciampi to quickly name him prime minister but the president, whose term ends on May 18, believes it is the duty of his successor.
The new parliament is due to convene on April 28. The Senate, lower house and regional representatives will then vote on May 12-13 to elect a successor to Ciampi.
Don't talk so stupid. It is, and has always been the case (just less media saturatiuon, and information awareness back then) in CLOSE elections.
25k difference in a voting block of 38mil is always going to be argued over.
Just sit back, and do not judge yet.. give at least a week before saying something stupid.
BTW.. what in the hell is this "center left" BS?
I guess when a communist gov't is 'on the table, the SOCIALIST is 'center' while Burlisconi was a 'hard right wing pro-western' blah blah blah...
/PUKE on that perspective...
There is NO judgement, there's only general inference that these situations SEEM to be arising as a trend. This isn't a stupid comment, as the MSM has been speaking of many instances were there's these questions. Whether or not they're valid, I leave it to common sense and law.
Same here, only they call themselves Democrats.
BURN IT DOWN !!!
You're absolutely right, and the communist Eurotrash Prodi is right in the middle of it. There is a very strong liklihood that Prodi himself was one of the main KGB pointmen in Italy during the 1970's and 80's.
You may recall this one from the UK Guardian of all places - certainly not a conservative paper! http://www.guardian.co.uk/eurocommission/Story/0,,203087,00.html
It reports a bizarre story from the Moro kidnapping in the late 70's when Prodi contacted the police with the name of the town where Moro was being held and claimed a Ouija Board gave it to him (I am not making this up!). The likely real source: the KGB.
Prodi is a VERY dangerous politician and I accordingly wish Berlusconi all the help he can get and hope that he challenges this election to the bitter end. Not only does something smell fishy, but Prodi is just flat out dangerous. Pundits and the media and even other freepers can scream "will of the people" all they want, but put yourself in Berlusconi's shoes. If you were president of a country and Fidel Castro was your challenger and he beat you in an election by the narrowest of margins, would you not have some reservations about handing over the keys of the government? Democracy's fine and all. But what happens if the voters elect a Hitler or Castro?
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