Posted on 04/10/2006 9:13:27 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
CENTRE-left leader Romano Prodi has claimed a knife-edge victory in Italy's general election, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's allies dispute the result and are demanding a "scrupulous" check of the count.
Twelve hours after polling stations closed, Mr Prodi declared his broad coalition had secured a majority in both houses of parliament and promised to unify Italy after a divisive, acrimonious election campaign.
"We have won," he told flag-waving supporters who had waited until the early hours in a Rome square as the count ebbed and flowed in the closest election in modern Italian history.
The centre-left said it was on course to win a one-seat majority in the upper house (Senate).
In the lower house, official data showed Mr Prodi had taken 49.81 per cent of the vote to 49.74 per cent for Mr Berlusconi's House of Freedoms Alliance.
Under Italy's new electoral system, the ballot winners are automatically granted 340 of the lower house's 630 seats no matter how small their margin of victory in the popular vote, with the runners-up getting 277 seats.
However, Mr Berlusconi's centre-right alliance contested Mr Prodi's claim of triumph, saying it wanted to check reports that half a million votes had been annulled.
"This is intolerable. What is this? A coup? It reminds me of South America. Auto proclamation (of victory) is constitutionally illegitimate," said Industry Minister Claudio Scajola, a member of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy) party.
The close race revealed deep splits in Italy and raised the spectre of chronic political instability in the months ahead.
Italy's two houses of parliament duplicate each other's functions and a government needs the support of both to take office and to pass laws.
A one-seat majority in the Senate would leave Mr Prodi vulnerable to the demands of junior partners and would turn every vote into an effective confidence motion.
"We were on a razor's edge, but in the end victory was ours and now it is time to turn the page," said Mr Prodi, who won a 1996 general election but only survived two years in office before being ousted by disgruntled communist allies.
Grossasheiza...
Is DU blaming Dieboldo and Haliburtononi?
Italy has had like 50 or more governments since the end of WW2 - I think that 'spectre of chronic political instability' is a lot more solid than the usual ghost.
"If you don't like the government here in Italy, give it a week."
Read another story that said that the Forza party won the Senate.
Lord knows, anything is possible in Italy!
Last count had them losing. I guess enough votes "appeared" at the end to push them over?
you would think after what has been going on in france the past year, the Italians wouldn't want the same for their country.
Goes to show that the muslims, secularists, commies, and others are taking over.
Prodi jumps the gun.
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2006/04/10/afx2661500.html
Do you suppose that the supervisors from Seattle helped them?
"Under Italy's new electoral system, the ballot winners are automatically granted 340 of the lower house's 630 seats no matter how small their margin of victory in the popular vote, with the runners-up getting 277 seats."
We ate in our (absolutley fabulous) local Italian place tonight (best antepasto EVER) and they have these rather educational place mats about Italy. Per the placemat Italy has 60 million people. The USA has 250 million. So WHY do they have so many congress critters over there? I mean, they have about 100 more than we do, with scores of millions fewer people. And their Senate is huge too.
PS - GO SILVIO!
It's called "Job Creation"...
I was pleasantly surprised a newspaper would use quotation marks to indicate a cliffhanger win, particular as the leading party (so far) described is from the Left. Until I read that it is from the Melbourne Herald Sun. No wonder.
MSMs are still MSMs - their left-leaning agendas are pretty apparent.
Camera (lower house) goes to the L'Unione (Prodi) by 25k votes (but by system rules they get 340 seats to 277 for Berlusconi's CDL). The Senate hangs in the balance. Prodi declares victory, CDL says votes will be scrupulously recounted. "If there's a tie", says Berlusconi, "we will re-vote".
"we will re-vote".
Is that possible?
I must now give props to my dear, dead brother, who most correctly said that "Corriere della Sera" is the most beautiful name for a newspaper, ever, he was so right about that.
Rocky Balboa was the Italian Stallion.
Prodi is the Italian Algore.
Actually, Italy has one of the most stable governments in the world. What keeps changing are the figureheads at the top, but the bureaucrats and decisionmakers and most of the senior leaders have remained astonishingly consistent, despite the frequent formation and collapse of political coalitions. That's one of the reason why Italy is today, despite the recent malaise, one of the very richest countries in the world (especially north of Rome), not the third-world hell hole it was (believe it) when I was there in 1947.
Corriere della Sera is indeed a beautiful name for a left-wing rag.
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