Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Prospect of split parliament looms over Italy
Apr 10, 2006, 20:20 GMT





Rome - The risk of a split parliament loomed over Italy on Monday after provisional results showed that Romano Prodi looked set to gain control of the Chamber of Deputies and Silvio Berlusconi prevailing in the Senate.


Prodi's centre-left Union coalition and Berlusconi's House of Freedoms appeared to be neck-to-neck according to projections.

But while the centre-left enjoyed a bigger chance of prevailing in the lower branch of parliament, the centre-right could yet gain a majority of seats in the upper branch.

This is because two different systems of allocating seats are in place in the two Houses.

In the 630-strong Chamber of Deputies, the winning coalition is assured a workable majority of 340, regardless of what size its victory is, thanks to a 'seats bonus'.

There is also a 'seats bonus' in the Senate, but here it is decided on a region-by-region basis. The outcome in this vote would depend on a number of swing regions, including Lazio and Campania.

A split parliament would force opposing forces to form a German-style grand coalition or call for fresh elections. A third alternative would be to create a technocratic government similar to those that ruled over Italy in the early 1990s.

Initial exit polls had predicted a clear advantage for Prodi in the Chamber of Deputies.

Preliminary results, confirmed by the vote count still underway, nevertheless showed a sharp drop in support for Berlusconi's Forza Italia party and a strong showing by Prodi's two-party Ulivo formation.

Political analysts blamed Forza Italia's poor showing on Berlusconi's failure to deliver on the promises of prosperity he had made in 2001.

Italy's gross domestic product has grown at an annual average of just 0.8 per cent since 2001 while the budget deficit is set to exceed the eurozone's limit of 3 per cent of GDP for the fourth year in a row.

'Berlusconi simply failed to deliver on the well-being that he had promised,' said James Walston, a political science professor at Rome's American University.

Berlusconi had led the country's longest-serving government and the largest parliamentary majority in post-war Italy.

The Interior Ministry put turnout at just under 84 per cent - compared to 81.4 per cent in 2001 - a high figure that showed voters had turned out in mass at polling stations.

The vote followed a bitter election campaign that saw Berlusconi attempt to lure voters with the promise of more tax cuts while warning Italians against voting for Prodi and his communist allies.

His strategy appeared to have failed, with the strongest showing within his coalition coming from the moderate Union of Christian Democrats Party (UDC), which had sought to distance itself from the outspoken premier throughout the election campaign.

Italian expatriates were for the first time allowed to vote, electing 12 MPs and 6 senators to the new legislature. Their votes were being counted separately.


© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur




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