Prodi fights collapse of Italian Government January 22, 2008 - 11:11AM The AGE Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi goes before parliament today to try to avert a Government crisis triggered when an ally withdrew from his coalition, but his chances of success appear slim. Clemente Mastella, whose small Catholic party Udeur had been crucial in ensuring Mr Prodi's slender majority in the Senate, said his group would no longer back the centre-left Government and favoured snap elections. The defection left Mr Prodi in a corner and prompted opposition calls for him to step down right away. But the Premier chose instead to address lawmakers and coerce his allies into a last-ditch show of support with a confidence vote in both chambers of Parliament - he is due to speak in the lower house at 8pm tonight local time. That strategy may only postpone what looks like an inevitable Government crisis. "Doesn't the Prime Minister have a duty to immediately go to the Quirinale (presidential palace) to offer his resignation?" asked Paolo Bonaiuti, spokesman for opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, in a statement. Allies said Mr Prodi was calm and determined to count his votes before throwing in the towel but Mastella, whose three seats in the Senate have helped keep Mr Prodi afloat so far, appeared in no mood for compromise. "This majority does not exist any more, this centre-left is finished," Mr Mastella said announcing his surprise decision to pull out of the coalition. "We're for elections." Mr Mastella stepped down as justice minister last week after he and his wife came under investigation in a corruption probe. At the time, he had said his party would provide "external" support to the Government. On Monday he said it would no longer do so. The most likely scenarios if Mr Prodi is forced to resign are early elections or the forming of an interim government to revamp election laws blamed for Italy's political instability. Such a government would need widespread, cross-party support, which is far from guaranteed. Mr Prodi has had a turbulent ride since coming to power in May 2006, after the closest election in modern Italian history. Weakened by constant infighting in his Catholic-to-communist coalition, he briefly had to resign last year, but no major ally had previously withdrawn support altogether. Mr Prodi could still win votes in the upper house - where until now he had a two-seat majority - with the support of seven unelected lifetime senators as he has done in the past, though their vote cannot be taken for granted. And the prospect of a referendum to change the electoral law, opposed by several small parties on both sides of the political divide because it would reduce their influence in future coalitions, might tip the balance in favour of early elections with the present system. "For us the crisis is already happening, there's no need to fiddle around," said Natale D'Amico, a senator from a small centrist party in Mr Prodi's coalition that has often criticised the government. Reuters . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=11648958/grpspId=1705447214/msgI d=53694/stime=1201005180/nc1=3848614/nc2=5170409/nc3=5028928> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
