Romano Prodi insisted yesterday that he could reunite a bitterly divided Italy as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi came under intense pressure to accept defeat after the country's closest vote in living memory.
Pressing ahead with plans to form Italy's first center-left government in five years, Prodi said his leftist coalition's victory was "clear" and played down fears the knife-edge result could make the nation ungovernable.
But the country's political future has become mired in chaos and confusion after Berlusconi refused to concede defeat for his center-right coalition.
PHOTO: AP
He cited "many irregularities" in voting for the upper Senate and the tiny 25,000-vote margin in the lower house and has demanded a close check of 43,000 contested ballots before Italy's top court signs off on the result.
Prodi -- who was to hold his first post-election news conference at 3pm yesterday -- said in an interview with France's Europe 1 radio that "victory is now clear in both houses of parliament."
He said he was "certain" of becoming Italy's next prime minister.
The 66-year-old former president of the EU Commission dismissed the idea of a German-style "grand coalition" of left and right, as suggested by Berlusconi in the event that a recount resulted in a split parliament.
He played down fears that the tight result could leave Italy divided and ungovernable.
"This is not something specific to Italy. Germany is cut in two, France is cut in two," he said. "So long as there is growth and clear ideas, we will reunite the country."
Prodi also recalled the narrow margin that separated US President George W. Bush from his Democratic rival, former vice president Al Gore, in the 2000 election in the US.
He revealed in an interview with top daily Corriere della Sera the swirl of emotions he felt while preparing to address supporters at what was to have been a victory rally late on Monday as the vote count narrowed dramatically.
"That was the darkest moment of that crazy night," Prodi said.
The former economic pro-fessor's first priority will be to kick-start a stagnant economy and convince international financial markets that, despite governing a disparate coalition ranging from moderate Catholics to Communists, he can provide a stable government.
Fears that Prodi will be playing with a weak hand were echoed in the European press yesterday, France's leftist Liberation fretting that he "will have trouble exercising power."
The Dutch business paper Het Dinancieele Dagblad said Italy made "the least worst choice" by electing Prodi but warned that "a return to the old culture of government crisis looms."
James Newell, an Italian politics specialist at Salford University in England, said the razor-thin margin of victory would leave a Prodi government with "little legitimacy."
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