Italy in political limbo as Prodi faces month's wait to take office
Romano Prodi has been told that he must wait up to six weeks before forming his centre left government in Italy because of some arcane bylaws.
This will mean that the defeated Silvio Berlusconi will stagger on for a further month and a half.President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who met Mr Prodi at the presidential palace yesterday morning, warned that the formation of a new executive would "inevitably take a long time" because of "deadlines and temporal procedures that cannot be ignored" and that were "constitutionally obligatory". The procedure is further complicated by the fact that Mr Ciampi's term is about to end, and he wants his successor to swear in the next government.
It has also been revealed the Berlusconi has not yet picked up the phone to offer congratulations to his opponent as is customary in all elections. This behaviour is even more strange when one considers that Berlusconi has not demanded a recount.
Berlusconi, who's behaviour has been spectacularly truculent throughout the election process, may however have other worries on his mind. Especially as his loss of office now leaves him open to court cases that he used his position as Prime Minister to avoid.
Nor do his problems end there.
Mr Prodi, who indicated that he was eager to get to work as quickly possible, told journalists he was determined to enact a conflict of interest law that would bar Mr Berlusconi or anyone else from becoming prime minister while owning a media empire.
Conflict of interest, he said, "is a problem that Italian democracy absolutely must confront. We have been rebuked for not having done it during our previous period in office (1996 to 2001). Now we will do it with serenity, enacting the law of 'anti-trust.' The law will be neither preferential nor pejorative towards a particular person. We are not talking about a vendetta, everyone is equal before the law."
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