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Prodi back in charge
03/03/2007 16:00 - (SA)
Rome - Italian centre-left leader Romano
Prodi was re-confirmed as prime minister on Friday when he won a
second and final confidence vote in parliament, ending a
political crisis and ensuring there will be no snap election.
He won by 342 votes to 198 with 2 abstentions in the lower
house, a much wider margin than in Wednesday's vote in the
Senate, where he remains vulnerable to further defections by
allies like one that forced him to resign temporarily last week.
Prodi stepped down after splits in his centre-left coalition
lost him a foreign policy vote. He was then instructed by
President Giorgio Napolitano to test his majority in parliament
to see if he had the support to return to power.
"It was a good vote," Prodi told reporters. "A great margin,
but also the debate showed the centre-left is much more united
than the centre-right and that means the government's work will
go ahead strongly."
But his fragile grip on power will be tested again in the
coming weeks when the Senate, where he has only a wafer-thin
majority, votes on financing Italy's military presence in
Afghanistan, a mission opposed by some leftist senators.
In an evening interview on national state television, Prodi
defended his record and said he had to make difficult choices to
help the economy.
"A good doctor does not give a patient the medicine he wants
but the medicine he needs," Prodi said.
Combative form
Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon
who narrowly lost last year's general election, has forecast
that Prodi will not last much longer in power.
A poll this week showed 40% of Italians agreed,
predicting his government would last just a few more months.
"You're so ridiculously proud of your self-declared
majority, but you don't have enough votes to approve the
Afghanistan decree," Berlusconi said in parliament.
But Prodi, buoyed by recent economic data, was on combative
form and said his government now had a mandate to push ahead
with sometimes unpopular economic policies aimed at increasing
competition and making life easier for would-be entrepreneurs.
"We've looked at banks, insurance, public services, energy,
professions, public works. We're talking about daily life -
young people who want to open a business without relying on
contacts or influence - we're not talking about small things."
- Reuters
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