Italy in crisis as Prodi quits
Italian president Giorgio Napolitano to hold crisis talks after prime minister Romano Prodi resigns
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Friday, 25, Jan 2008 07:35
Italian president Giorgio Napolitano is to hold crisis talks after prime minister Romano Prodi resigned after losing a confidence vote in the Senate.
Mr Prodi handed in his resignation late on Thursday after being defeated in a no confidence vote in the upper houses of parliament, leaving Mr Napolitano to consult party and parliamentary leaders with the possible intention of forming an interim government.
Opposition leader and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has called for a snap election in the wake of Mr Prodi's resignation and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the news.
"Now we must go to vote. We will say what we want to do in the first 100 days of our government," he said.
However Mr Berlusconi's celebrations - his Forza Italia party holds a strong lead in the opinion polls - were cut short by Senate president Franco Marini, who said: "Get rid of that bottle, we're not in a pub here."
Mr Prodi's resignation was sparked by the loss of the small centrist Udeur party, which left the prime minister without a majority.
In the subsequent vote, Mr Prodi's government was four votes shy of extending its control, with 161 senators submitting a vote of no confidence and one abstaining.
Mr Napolitano has asked Mr Prodi to remain as prime minister in a caretaker capacity until the next step for Italian politics is confirmed.
While Mr Berlusconi favours a snap election, it is thought Mr Napolitano is likely to assess support for the creation of an interim government, which would allow the reform of a messy electoral system which left Mr Prodi's government with a miniscule majority in the senate and forced to cope with an unstable, nine-party coalition.