Romano Prodi, the new Italian prime minister, called the war in Iraq a "grave error" on Thursday in a speech in which he set Italy on a decisively different, more conventionally European, course from that of his predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi.
"Our country needs a strong jolt," Prodi said in a 90-minute address to the upper house of Parliament on his first full day in office.
The speech amounted to an inaugural announcement of his priorities, and he pledged major changes to Berlusconi's approach on labor laws, conflict of interest, tax evasion and Italy's deep public debt.
But it was on the issue of Iraq that Prodi spoke most sharply, reining Italy back from Berlusconi's close relationship with US President George W. Bush and, in especially strong words, adopting a more skeptical stance on the war in Iraq.
"We consider the war in Iraq and the occupation of the country a grave error," he said, adding that Italy would continue to value a strong relationship with Washington.
"It has not resolved, but complicated, the situation of security ... Terrorism has found a new base in Iraq and new excuses for terror attacks both inside and outside the country," he said.
His speech was interrupted by catcalls of "Shame, Shame" from the new center-right opposition. The hostile reception, both inside the chamber and outside in angry comments from center-right senators, came as a loud reminder of a fundamental challenge for Prodi: his slim majority of just two seats in the Senate, which may make major changes difficult.
But for all the emotion on both sides, Prodi's plan for Iraq does not seem to differ substantially from the one Berlusconi put into place under pressure during the election campaign, as he faced criticism for his strong support of Bush when most Italians opposed the war.
Berlusconi had pledged to withdraw all Italian troops by the end of the year. While Prodi, on Thursday and in campaign documents, has called for an immediate withdrawal, he repeated the past qualification that it would not happen until after consultations with Iraqi authorities.
The bottom line, which has been expressed to US officials, is that Prodi does not intend an overnight withdrawal like that carried out by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain after he won two years ago. Italian troops, in fact, still may not leave Iraq until the end of the year.
"We never thought of an exit from Iraq in the way Zapatero organized it, one day to the other," said Prodi's spokesman, Silvio Sircana.
In these first days of the new government -- the first in five years -- all sides in Italy's fractious and noisy political opera are feeling through their new places amid the change. Berlusconi, accustomed to near-unchallenged power, is now the opposition leader and has publicly pledged to bring down Prodi's government as quickly as possible.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever