Italian PM Prod to seek vote of confidence today

Italian Premier Romano Prodi went before the Lower House ,premier"s
address opened a floor debate which will conclude with a confidence
vote on Wednesday, after which Prodi will face the almost impossible
task of winning a confidence test in the Senate.
Forza Italia leader and most likely center right candidate for
premier the media tycoon and three-time Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi could find himself back in power as soon as next week.

Forza Italia a political outfit was formed in 1993 by Silvio Berlusconi, a successful businessman and owner of three of the main private television stations in Italy, along with Antonio Martino, Mario Valducci, Antonio Tajani, Marcello Dell"Utri, Cesare Previti and Giuliano Urbani.

Italy was shaken by a series of corruption scandals known as Tangentopoli and the subsequent police investigation, called Mani pulite.

Mastella,ex-justice minister decided to withdraw the support of his
Udeur party,without the Udeur"s three senators Prodi no longer holds a
majority in both houses of parliament.
Italian premier Prod on Tuesday gave15-minute address to the Lower
House, “proudly" defended his government"s the past 20 months
performance added “this government has brought benefits to the nation
and I am convinced that it will be able to do so in the
future."Government, Prodi observed, “was the result of a pact for the
legislature based on a common five-year program which has already put
Italy back on its feet." We need continuity of action above all at a
moment when the world economy is faced with negative developments,"
Prodi said.
The Udeur defected senators confirmed that it will vote against the
government both in the Lower House and Senate, while opposition leaders
called for Prodi"s immediate resignation.
Former premier Silvio Berlusconi, absent from the floor, summed up
the opposition"s position by defining the confidence votes as “a
useless formality because the situation is clear."
Forza Italia leader and most likely center right candidate for
premier said he expected to reply to Prodi in the Lower House on
Wednesday, before the confidence vote.
Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa warned the political crisis
had come at “the least appropriate moment to interrupt the work
underway" on improving Italy"s public finances.Mastella said on Monday
that he had decided to bring the government down because of differences
on a number of issues including electoral reform, the proposed
referendum on the current electoral law and relations with the new
Democratic Party, which was created through the fusion of the
Democratic Left and centrist Daisy parties.
Italy was shaken by a series of corruption scandals known as
Tangentopoli and the subsequent police investigation, called Mani
pulite.
Vatican was accused of trying to bring down the Italian government
after a Catholic minister abandoned Romano Prodi"s coalition
government, leaving it facing collapse yesterday.
Mastella resigned from the government last week after he and his wife
had been implicated in a cash-for-favours scandal.On Tuesday he said Mr
Prodi"s coalition was “dead, dead, dead'".
The impetus for his change of heart appears to have come from the
Vatican, which has voiced its disapproval at Mr Prodi"s stance on gay
rights and abortion.
The Vatican also shook the government last summer, when Mr Prodi lost a
vote on his foreign policy on the same day that a gay marriage bill
entered parliament.
Several senators from the old Christian Democrat party either absented themselves from the chamber or abstained from the vote.
The Italian newspaper ‘La Stampa" said yesterday that the Holy See
was trying to meddle in Italian politics.