60, 61, 62

23 February 2007



Italian Prime Minister Resigns over Afghanistan Deployment and US Bases

Romano Prodi, who has been Prime Minister of Italy for a whopping 10 months, resigned yesterday and may force the country into elections. The reason was a technical defeat in the Italian Senate over troop deployments to Afghanistan and the expansion of a US base in the north of Italy. The 61st Italian government since 1945 fell in a bizarre way, so bizarre that the 62nd may look just like it.

To begin with, Mr. Prodi’s coalition had more votes in favor of the troop deployments and the base expansion than the opposition did. The yeas and nays were 158 to 136 with 24 abstentions. But the abstentions count as votes against by the rules of that chamber, so there was technically a 2-vote margin against the motion. Governments in Europe, as a general rule, don’t fall on defeats (if that’s what this really was) in the upper house. Naturally, nothing in Italian politics is that simple – ask Cicero.

Shortly before the vote, the foreign minister, Massimo D’Alema, had said that if the measure didn’t pass, it would mean it was time for “everyone to go home.” This effectively turned the vote into a matter of confidence. The President, Giorgio Napolitano, is trying to get a new coalition in place without a general election, and it sounds as if the coalition members will stay in line. Whether Mr. D’Alema gets a seat in the cabinet is another matter.

The underlying troubles remain, however. The Italian participation in the NATO-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan has been tarred with the Iraq-Nam brush. Many of Mr. Prodi’s coalition partners like ex-communists, the Greens, members of the radical left, etc., have decided that the ISAF is also part of Mr. Bush’s plot for world domination and want no part of it. They also oppose the expansion of a US military base at Vicenza, in the north of Italy. Mr. Prodi wants it to go ahead and recasting the cabinet won’t resolve this dispute.

Waiting in the wings is Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister, Italy’s richest man, controller of most of Italy’s media and a man suffering from ethical dwarfism. Ironically, Mr. Berlusconi is more pro-America than Mr. Prodi, so this maneuver by the Italian left could bring gains to the Bush White House. Mr. Berlusconi told the newspaper Il Mattino, “All polls give us a lead of between 8% and 15%. I am confident we will be back in government to resume and complete the work that was interrupted.” If President Napolitano can’t get a coalition together and if elections are needed, this is a very real threat.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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