Wednesday - February 21, 2007

Italy's Prodi Resigns

 Or is This the Definition of Bittersweet?

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned today, after only nine months in office.  While short lived governments in Italy are not unusual, that a Socialist/Communist government would be brought down because it was promoting American interests is.

Two of his own far-left coalition members abstained amid tensions over whether Italy should continue to provide troops to Afghanistan and Mr. Prodi’s support of an expansion of an American military base in Vicenza, in northern Italy.

With only a razor-thin majority, the abstentions killed the measure, aimed at gaining Senate support for Italy’s foreign policy, and unexpectedly doomed the government.

“I can’t in any way give my vote to this government with this foreign policy,” said Fernando Rossi, a senator from the Italian Communist Party and one of the dissenters. 

But foreign policy remained a particular weak spot. Essentially, Mr. Prodi and his ministers have sought to walk a difficult line, echoing much of the skepticism in Europe about President Bush and the war in Iraq while maintaining Italy’s traditionally strong ties with America.

The government’s far-left members, however, have strongly resisted the presence of nearly 2,000 Italian troops in Afghanistan. And last weekend, tens of thousands of people rallied against the expansion of the American-staffed NATO base in Vicenza, which Mr. Prodi’s government reluctantly supported.

The splits grew deeper, and on Tuesday in Spain, Italy’s foreign minister, Massismo D’Alema, himself a former prime minister, called for the Senate to endorse Italy’s foreign policy. If it did not, he said, the government should “go home,” or step down.

In a long and impassioned speech before the vote on Wednesday, Mr. D’Alema defended his government’s position on Afghanistan and the Vicenza base, in terms that he hoped would win the left’s support.

“We have not supported the neo-conservative politics of the American administration and we have not sent soldiers to Iraq,” he told his colleagues. “There is a profound difference between the military operations in Afghanistan, approved by the United Nations, and those in Iraq.”

He added that the support of expanding the Vicenza base was essential to good relations with America. “To change course would be a hostile act against the United States,” he said.

In the end, the government needed 160 votes, but only got 158 with the two abstentions. Opposition senators roared at the result, shouting immediately: “Resign! Resign!”

Many experts said they believed Mr. D’Alema, one of the most powerful and experienced members of the government, would resign. And as Italy’s leaders search for a broader solution in the next few days, there are several alternatives to a mere shuffling of the current cabinet. 

So who would have thought that Prodi's government, anti-American in tone, would fall because it was standing fast, fulfilling its obligations to its ally?  Maybe some American politicians should learn from this example that there are more important things than just staying in office.