World

Italy's Centrists Spurn Prodi

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 15, 1998 / 11:58 AM EDT / CBS

Italy's caretaker Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Thursday admitted defeat in his bid to form a new government, and told President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro his attempt to find political support in parliament had failed.

Lacking the support of his former ally, the far-left Communist Party, Prodi had held talks with the centrist party of former President Francesco Cossiga to see if they could work together. Those talks failed Wednesday night.

"I told the president the task proved to be impossible," Prodi told reporters at the Quirinale Palace.

Scalfaro, determined to avoid calling an early general election, was scheduled to begin a new round of consultations with political leaders to pick another candidate to form Italy's 56th government since 1945, sources at the presidential palace said.

Prodi resigned last Friday after losing a confidence vote in the lower house Chamber of Deputies.

His majority collapsed after his key allies, the Communist Refoundation party, broke their 28-month pact guaranteeing Prodi's centre-left Ulivo (Olive Tree) coalition a majority.

Explaining his decision, Prodi said: "It would have wrecked the Olive Tree coalition, something I found unacceptable. I could not be responsible for destroying something I had spent years building."

Expectations were growing that Scalfaro would now turn to Massimo D'Alema, leader of the biggest party in parliament, the Democrats of the Left -- the bulk of the former Communist Party of Italy, the West's most powerful communist group during the Cold War period.

Prodi said he believed D'Alema could certainly succeed in forming a new government but had not suggested any names to Scalfaro.

Moderate Marxists who split from Communist Refoundation said on Thursday they supported D'Alema for the job.

"The communist groups will officially propose to the head of state, in the course of consultations, that he confer a mandate to form the new government on Massimo D'Alema, in his capacity as secretary of the biggest of the parties which made up the (outgoing) majority," a statement from moderate communists said.

The Rome-based daily la Repubblica said Prodi, who has insisted on continuity and stability for the country, was urging that D'Alema be given a mandate to form a new government.

"It's D'Alema's turn," the paper said in a banner headline. Other newspapers concurred that D'Alema was now top prospect.

Opposition forces, led by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, have insisted that the only proper choice was new parliamentary elections, 2 1/2 years early.

If all Scalfaro's attempts fail, he may be forced to heed the call for a new vote.