The Italian president asked Romano Prodi on Saturday to stay on as premier and face a new vote of confidence in parliament, seeking a swift end to the political crisis prompted by the government's resignation days ago.
President Giorgio Napolitano announced his decision after holding two days of talks with party leaders and receiving reassurances that Prodi had the necessary parliamentary backing.
"I will seek a vote of confidence as soon as possible, with renewed impetus and a united coalition," Prodi said after meeting with the president.
Prodi stepped down on Wednesday after an embarrassing parliamentary defeat over foreign policy, including the government's plan to keep troops in Afghanistan. Defections by radical leftists, who have been voicing opposition to various government policies, were to blame.
Napolitano said there was not sufficient support for a broad coalition government, as demanded by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi and other conservatives. He said most party leaders agreed that early elections without a change in Italy's electoral law -- which has increased the influence of small parties -- was pointless.
"There was no alternative," Napolitano told reporters.
There are no surprises here. Prodi was going to get a second chance to form a government no matter what. And who knows? Maybe the little parties have learned a lesson about cooperating for the good of the coalition.
And just maybe there is some support to be gained from some center-right members.
Prodi has comfortable margin in the lower house of parliament. But his majority in the Senate is not guaranteed, leading center-left leaders to frantically count the numbers of senators they can rely on and courting outsiders -- mostly a few moderates and Catholics -- in an effort to broaden the coalition.
They seemed to have persuaded at least one centrist -- Marco Follini, a former deputy premier who has since left the conservative coalition led by Berlusconi. Follini told Corriere della Sera he would "likely" support Prodi, saying he wanted to take the government away from the influence of radical fringes.
Follini is a member of the senate originally elected as a member of Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e dei Democratici di Centro, but who left the UDC to form Italia di Mezzo. God only knows how much support IdM would generate in the electorate, but in the confines of an evenly split senate Follini could become quite important. Especially if he proves to be more reliable than some of the far-left members of the ruling coalition.
Prodi has quite a juggling act to pull off to keep this government together for any significant length of time.
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