Prodi wins key confidence vote to stay as PM

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi won a confidence vote in the Senate yesterday, allowing him to stay on in office. Profs. Prodi won with 162 votes for and 157 against.

Romano Prodi was expected to win the backing of the upper house yesterday to remain as prime minister, but his grip on power remains weak.

Profs. Prodi resigned last week after nine months in office over a foreign policy revolt in the Senate. He won a second chance from President Giorgio Napolitano after the fear of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's return brought coalition rebels back into line.

The vote reconfirmed Profs. Prodi as prime minister at the head of a centre-left coalition. But his fragile position was illustrated by his reliance on lifetime senators like 97-year-old Nobel scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini.

She rushed home yesterday from abroad to vote as one of seven unelected life senators. The value of their vote is questioned by the opposition, that say Profs. Prodi should quit if he cannot muster a strong elected majority.

"Clearly if there is no political majority and they depend on lifetime senators to win the confidence vote, the head of state should have something to say," said Senator Giuseppe Pisanu of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.

A new poll suggested only four in 10 Italians want Profs. Prodi to stay.

Most favour a non-partisan technical government or snap elections, showed the poll in Corriere della Sera daily. Thirty-nine percent said Profs. Prodi would last only a couple of months and 22 per cent gave him one to two years - but not a complete five-year term.

"This data shows heightened public concern, uncertainty and pessimism about the future of political leadership of the country," said pollster Renato Mannheimer.

Electoral laws favour wide coalitions like Profs. Prodi's bickering Catholic-to-communist alliance rather than strong majorities and are widely blamed for the political instability which has given Italy 61 governments since WWII.