EU File: Italian PM, alleged KGB asset Prodi resigns again, center-left-communist government's future uncertain, election likely

The status of Italy's place in the Communist Bloc is uncertain this week, due to the chronic instability of that country's party system. Italy's center-left government, consisting of a coalition of parties that includes Catholics and communists, is facing yet another crisis. Italian Prime Minister, former European Commission President, and alleged KGB asset Romano Prodi has resigned, repeating last February's political crisis. One year ago "ex"-communist Italian President Giorgio Napolitano urged Prodi to remain in office but to submit to a vote of confidence in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Prodi won the confidence of both houses.

In early January 2008, however, Justice Minister and Popular-UDEUR leader Clemente Mastella resigned, leaving Prodi's coalition government in a state of jeopardy. Popular-UDEUR is a small centrist party that provided Prodi with the votes he needed in the upper house. On January 23 Prodi won another confidence vote in the Chamber, but lost by a slim margin the vote in the Senate. President Napolitano will defer acceptance of Prodi's resignation until he has consulted with all parties represented in the Italian Parliament.

Italy's center left in tatters after Prodi quits
Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:19am EST
By Silvia Aloisi

ROME (Reuters) - Riven by deep policy divisions and personal rivalries, Italy's centre left is in tatters after the collapse of Romano Prodi's government and faces a likely drubbing if a snap election is called.

Prodi's resignation after several allies voted against him in the Senate was not just a defeat for the 68-year-old premier, but for the whole of his "suicidal" centre-left coalition, as one commentator put it.

"The problem for the centre left is that it comes out of this test reduced to shreds. It does not exist anymore, and the score-settling has not even started yet," wrote Massimo Franco in an editorial in Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Throughout Prodi's 20 months in power, the nine-party, Catholics-to-communists coalition that allowed him to narrowly beat Silvio Berlusconi in the 2006 election offered a grim spectacle of infighting and mutual sabotage.

His so-called allies argued on just about everything, from foreign policy to gay rights, from economic reforms to abortion.

"They only kept going through vetoes, threats and blackmail, weakening the prime minister and forcing him to mediate rather than take the lead," wrote left-leaning La Repubblica.

Even fear that a government collapse would help Berlusconi -- who has a clear lead in opinion polls -- return to power was not enough to stop the bickering and defections.

Tellingly, among the "allies" who voted with Berlusconi's centre right against Prodi on Thursday were Catholic centrists, liberal democrats and a hard-line communist.

RIVALRY

But perhaps the worst sign for the centre left is that its flagship, the Democratic Party (PD) which merged the bloc's two largest forces as Prodi pushed for greater unity, is also threatened by divisions three months after it was formed.

Ever since Walter Veltroni, the Rome mayor and Prodi's heir to lead the centre left, took the helm of the PD last October, the rivalry between the two was laid bare.

Veltroni immediately started negotiations with Berlusconi on how to reform Italy's messy electoral law, blamed for the chronic instability of governments. Although the talks failed, Veltroni's stream of headline-grabbing statements often overshadowed and surprised Prodi.

While Prodi's collapse was ostensibly triggered by the pullout of the small Catholic Udeur party from his coalition, many political analysts say Veltroni also played a part.

His pre-crisis announcement that the PD would run on its own at the next election irked coalition allies, particularly smaller parties who fear their weight will be greatly reduced in future governments if the voting rules are changed.

"Veltroni's disastrous comments shattered the coalition and led to Prodi's fall," said communist senator Manuela Palermi.

"Now the damage has been done, and to rebuild the centre left will be an arduous task."

Source: Reuters

"The problem for the centre left is that it comes out of this test reduced to shreds. It does not exist anymore, and the score-settling has not even started yet," editorialized Massimo Franco in the Corriere della Sera newspaper, above. Don't worry, the Italian Left will regroup and come back with a vengeance. Communists don't take no for an answer. "Elections are likely as soon as Italy's complicated electoral law is reformed," reports The Telegraph. "It has had 60 governments in the 62 years since it became a republic."

On October 14, 2007 Prodi oversaw the merger of two main Italian centre-left parties, the Democrats of the Left and Daisy, creating the new Italian Democratic Party. The Democrats of the Left developed from the Democratic Party of the Left, which in turn was a retooling of the Italian Communist Party into a democratic socialist party. Daisy (Democracy is Freedom) was formed by former leftist Christian Democrats, centrists from the Liberal and Republican Parties, and assorted Socialists and Greens.

In April 2006 murdered FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko disclosed to Member of the European Parliament Gerard Batten that Prodi was a KGB asset. In November of the same year Prodi announced that he would proceed with legal action against those individuals making the allegations, although the law suit has not been in the news for over a year now. Prodi has made several trips to Russia, both before and after his appointment to the position of prime minister. The last visit was in January 2007, when the alleged KGB asset conferred with the former head of the KGB at Putin's residence in Sochi. In March 2007 Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Rome and Vatican City. State-run Voice of Russia reports: "Italy is one of Russia’s leading European partners."

Indeed, the Soviet strategists will not be pleased if Rome does not remain a trusted ally in the Communist Bloc. This is one reason why the Kremlin pursues entangling business and political alliances with countries that cannot be easily terminated even when a less-than-compliant rightist government assumes power in the allied country. Perfect examples of such Kremlin-friendly partnerships are the South Stream natural gas pipeline project that unites Gazprom and Italy's formerly state-run ENI and transits Russian allies Bulgaria and Serbia, and the US$283 million contract inked by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi to supply 10 Superjet 100 aircraft to Italian carrier ItAli Airlines.