The Italian president asked Romano Prodi yesterday to stay on as prime minister 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 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 prime minister 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.
Following the government's resignation on Wednesday, all coalition allies said they were ready to support any bids by Prodi to return as prime minister. They signed up to a new detailed government program that Prodi said would be "non negotiable."
Prodi has a 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.
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