Italy's parliament opened yesterday for the first time since Romano Prodi's coalition narrowly won elections earlier this month, with legislative sessions that will test the ability of his fractious group of allies to stand together.
Prodi's main challenge is in the Senate, where his margin is tighter than in the Chamber of Deputies.
His candidate for Senate president -- Franco Marini, a centrist and former labor leader -- is up against former Christian Democrat prime minister Giulio Andreotti, the nominee of outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition.
Marini got the most votes in the first round of balloting yesterday afternoon, but did not garner the necessary two-thirds majority to win. A second vote was scheduled in the evening.
Several rounds of balloting were expected before a winner is declared.
The last time parliament had convened was before the April 9-10 election.
Prodi, who made an appearance at the Chamber of Deputies, appeared relaxed and joked with reporters.
"All is well, all is well. The first day of school is always a party," Prodi told the ANSA news agency.
In a news conference a day earlier, he was hopeful that his "majority would be solid" and stay compact.
Prodi's Union coalition ranges from pro-Vatican moderates to Communists, and already has shown signs of fraying over which politician gets which post under his tenure.
His candidate Marini, 73, is a former leader of one of Italy's major labor confederations that has traditionally been supported by Christian Democrats. Andreotti, 87, was longtime leader of the Christian Democrats when they dominated politics in Italy for decades after World War II until corruption scandals toppled them from power.
Although Prodi's center-left coalition has the numbers to get Marini through, there was the danger that some of those lawmakers could defect to Andreotti in the secret ballot.
Marini acknowledged that he was facing a "difficult" battle, the Apcom agency reported.
But Andreotti's chances are hampered by the fact that the Northern League, the often xenophobic, anti-immigrant party within Berlusconi's coalition, said its senators would vote for Roberto Calderoli, who was Berlusconi's former reforms minister.
Calderoli was forced to quit the government in February after he wore a T-shirt with a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed on state TV.
In the lower house, the president is expected to be Prodi's ally and nominee, Communist leader Fausto Bertinotti. However, he did not garner the necessary two-thirds of the votes in a first round of balloting, and parliamentary officials said the voting would probably stretch into today.
Berlusconi did not attend either opening of the parliamentary chambers. He did however show up later to vote in the lower house where he is a deputy, and was quoted by Italian news agencies as urging fellow deputies to keep up the fight.
"We must remember that we won these elections," said Berlusconi, who won the popular vote. "Now we must hold on firmly to the will to fight."
Reports said he was expected to head to the presidential palace and turn in his resignation to the head of state after the leaders of both houses of the new legislature are elected.
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