Posted on 04/29/2006 8:04:46 PM PDT by FairOpinion
ROME, April 29 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday he would resign, ending three weeks of wrangling over a narrow election defeat and clearing the political decks for Romano Prodi to take power.
Berlusconi, who had previously alleged election fraud and refused to formally concede defeat after April 9-10 polls, would hand his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on Tuesday after a scheduled cabinet meeting, officials said.
Prodi's centre-left coalition, ranging from communists to centrist Roman Catholics, won the election by the smallest margin in modern Italian history and will have to find quick remedies for a struggling economy andwayward public finances.
Many political commentators are sceptical he will govern for long, especially after his coalition displayed embarrassing disunity on Friday and Saturday, needing four votes to get its candidate elected president of parliament's upper house Senate.
"The Prodi government, if it ever sees the light of day, will have to get used to living with an abacus in its hands," the leftist La Repubblica newspaper said after the coalition failed to unite round Franco Marini in the first three votes.
The centre-left has only a two-seat majority in the Senate but should be able to count on support from several life-senators appointed by the president, not elected. Prodi's majority is bigger in the lower house Chamber of Deputies.
"Yes," an official at Berlusconi's office said when asked whether the prime minister, Italy's richest man and a media magnate, had decided to quit after leading Italy for five years with a centre-right cabinet.
MIRACLE
Berlusconi won power in 2001 promising an economic miracle of tax cuts, an infrastructure boom and economic growth of around 4 percent per year. But in 2005 the economy failed to grow for the second time in three years.
The public deficit has exceeded the European Union's 3 percent of GDP ceiling for the last three years, with the trend worsening as one-off deficit plugs have run out. The 2005 deficit of 4.1 percent of GDP was the highest since 1996.
Prodi, a former European Commission president, has made much of his five years in Brussels where he stood on a world stage and earned a reputation for seriousness -- a campaign motto he coined to contrast with Berlusconi's flamboyance.
He saw EU expansion and the introduction of the euro to fruition, but had only limited success in his attempts to stamp out waste and fraud. He left many cold with his lack of communication skills and presence.
While waiting for Berlusconi to step down, Prodi has been working with his partners to try to put together a cabinet.
Prodi managed to get his candidate elected speaker of the Senate at the fourth attempt on Saturday, but the drawn-out vote revealed coalition cracks that bode ill for future stability.
Prodi made light of the problems ahead after his man finally clinched victory with 165 votes in the 322-seat Senate, against 156 for the centre right's candidate, 87-year-old elder statesman Giulio Andreotti.
"Today we have a positive situation and I believe the legislature can begin well," Prodi told reporters.
Earlier on Saturday, veteran communist leader Fausto Bertinotti, was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies.
Prodi's spokesman Silvio Sircana told Reuters the election of speakers for both parliamentary houses had forced Berlusconi to quit. "It's just normal procedure. He was obliged to resign at the first reasonable opportunity," said Sircana.
Ciampi would normally have the task of asking Prodi to form a government, but his term of office expires in mid-May and he has signalled the job should fall to his successor. Prodi would like to be nominated before then.
We had three great friends in Europe: Blair, Aznar (Spain's PM), and Berlusconi. Aznar was defeated by a socialist a couple of years ago, after the Madrid bombings, now the communists succeeded in defeating Berlusconi.
Western Europe is moving towards socialism and away from the US.
And it boggles one's mind, that the Catholics would ally themselves with the communists to beat the conservatives.
"Earlier on Saturday, veteran communist leader Fausto Bertinotti, was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies. "
AlGore held longer.
That guy makes killer handbags......It is the same guy, right?
I'm not sure it is entirely accurate to characterize Italy as "moving towards" socialism. Berlusconi was an exception, not the rule.
Gucci is the one who makes handbags.
I don't know about Prodi.
But Berlusconi is a media tycoon, he owns TV stations, print media and I think some contstruction company, but no handbags.
Berlusconi is a capitalist -- Prodi, who just got elected is a socialist, almost communist and he won by allying his party with the actual communist party of Italy.
I think he or she meant "Prada."
In other words, Italy is returning to the norm.
Also oddly,the U. S. State Dept. historically seems to prefer dictatorships despite the principles this nation was founded on.
But when the chips are down, after Europe gets itself into trouble, they look to the US to save them.
Thank you Derek Zoolander for your input in this matter.
Italy has had a lot of trouble governing itself. The successful periods, since Mussolini was hanged and free parliamentary government resumed, have been few and far between.
Aznar was not himself defeated, as he was not running again, but his chosen successor was beaten in an upset.
Does Berlusconi own Prada handbags? I had no idea.
Mussolini was beaten to death and then hung up for display. If the border is closed we might see Fox get the same reward.
centrist Roman Catholicsthat would be the pro-abortion, anti-US, anti-nuke, unilateral disarmament, dhimmi branch of the RCC.
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