Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is refusing to concede defeat to his opponent Romano Prodi in elections early this month even as a top court confirmed the center-left coalition's majority in parliament's lower house.
Prodi, meanwhile, was working to form his Cabinet, holding daily talks with allies.
La Repubblica newspaper reported on Thursday that he plans to give the Economics Ministry -- a key post amid Italy's economic woes -- to Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, a former board member of the European Central Bank and a highly respected economist.
Prodi had lunch with Padoa Schioppa on Thursday in downtown Rome. He later told the ANSA news agency that "there are still no names for the government."
While the final breakdown of seats for the Senate was still to be announced, Prodi's two-seat majority in the upper house was widely expected to be confirmed.
The former premier and EU chief has said there are no more doubts about his victory, and on Thursday he described the center-right's refusal to concede as sad.
"Sooner or later they will recognize how things are," Prodi said. "It is very sad that there should be something like this in a mature democracy."
still combative
Berlusconi has not made any public comments since the court's announcement on Wednesday that Prodi had won the lower house by 24,755 votes -- a margin virtually unchanged from the one previously announced. The court made the announcement after a review of contested ballots.
But Italian newspapers said on Thursday that the prime minister remained as combative as ever.
"We'll fight. They'll have to deal with us," he was quoted as saying in La Repubblica, a left-leaning daily. Other newspapers had similar comments, and many reported the conservative leader has no intention of calling Prodi.
Several world leaders, including from Britain, France, Germany and Israel, have called Prodi to congratulate him. However, two close Berlusconi allies, US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, have not called Prodi yet, his office said on Thursday.
Berlusconi has remained defiant since the results of the April 9-10 election -- one of the closest in Italian history -- showed he had lost control of parliament.
For days, he has alleged irregularities and at one point he even spoke of fraud, only to quickly retract. He has said that the razor-thin margin of Prodi's victory required thorough checks and contended the vote of Italians abroad was marred by irregularities.
Berlusconi even raised the possibility of a "grand coalition" government, but the proposal was quickly dismissed by Prodi and other center-left leaders.
After the court's announcement on Wednesday, the prime minister left it up to his allies to announce further action and demand a more thorough review.
shaky support
Under Italian law, after the review of contested ballots, any further challenges or complaints would be dealt with by the electoral committees set up by the new parliament after it convenes. Such checks can take months and are not expected to stall the political process.
At least some of the prime minister's allies strayed from his position. The leader of a small centrist party in the conservative coalition, Lorenzo Cesa, offered his best wishes to Prodi, while a Cabinet minister, Stefania Prestigiacomo, urged her fellow conservatives to recognize the center-left's victory.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was