Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday the he will
submit his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on
Tuesday, Italian News Agency ANSA reported.
Berlusconi, who has not yet called Prodi to concede defeat in
political election, said he would see Ciampi immediately after a
cabinet meeting convened on Tuesday.
Italian center-left candidates Franco Marini and Fausto
Bertinotti were elected Senate and Lower House Speakers on
Saturday, clearing the way for the formation of a center-left
government led by former European Commission president Romano
Prodi.
Marini, a senator with the centrist Daisy party was elected on
the fourth ballot, garnering 165 votes against the 156 votes cast
by the center right for former premier Giulio Andreotti, a life
senator.
But the center left's failure to get Marini elected on Friday
highlighted the fragility of Prodi's hold on the Upper House as
well as looming problems with coalition unity.
At least four senators initially broke rank, failing to back
Marini in the first day of voting in the 322-seat house.
Prodi, who won a wafer-thin victory over outgoing premier Silvio
Berlusconi in Italy's April 9 and 10 general election, had been
hoping for a first-round election for Marini.
Marini's election, at the end of two controversial days of
voting, was greeted by a long round of applause led by his
87-year-old opponent.
"I'm very, very, very happy. We've settled down now," said a
jubilant premier-elect Prodi, whose Union coalition holds a
two-seat majority in the Senate.
The Union needed the support of at least four of Italy's seven
life senators and one independent from abroad to get Marini
elected.
Earlier on Saturday, veteran Communist Fausto Bertinotti was
elected House Speaker with an absolute majority of 337 votes. The
Union has a 64-seat majority in the 630-seat chamber and Bertinotti
's election had not been in doubt, despite numerous votes for
Democratic Left Chairman Massimo D'Alema.
Bertinotti - leader of the Communist Refoundation Party - was
also elected on the fourth ballot, when a two-third majority was no
longer required.
Both Marini and Bertinotti, former trade union leaders, pledged
impartiality, saying in their acceptance speeches they would work
to represent both coalitions' interests fairly.
But despite the upbeat climate in the center left, most
political commentators agreed that the difficulty surrounding
Marini's election showed that the incoming government will need
to close ranks if it hopes to survive in the Senate.
Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" (Evening's post)
editorialist Paolo Franchi warned that the mishap over Marini's
election was a sort of wake-up call for the coalition.
Under the Italian constitution, it is the president's job to
formally appoint a new government. Ciampi's term ends on May 18 and
the 85-year-old president has made it clear that he would like his
successor - who will be chosen by the parliament in voting on May
11 and 12 - to name the new premier.
(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2006)
