Via the BBC: Italian crisis talks as PM quits:
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has begun crisis talks following the resignation of Prime Minister Romano Prodi after just 10 months in office.Mr Prodi quit after several of his centre-left coalition partners opposed troop deployments in Afghanistan and plans to expand a US airbase in Italy.
Prodi is currently acting as a caretaker and new elections are possible. However, it is possible that Prodi will be PM heading a new government when all is said and done.
The current situation revolves around US-Italian relations:
It was the opposition of several more left-wing coalition senators to what critics have called his “pro-American” foreign policy that cost Mr Prodi the senate vote.
There were dramatic scenes in the upper house, the Senate, on Wednesday as the government lost its motion by just two votes.
The result was met by cries of “resign! resign!” by right-wing senators, and the sitting was suspended shortly afterwards.
The motion had asked the Senate to approve the government’s foreign policy, a policy which it said was inspired by a repudiation of war and respect for the role of the EU, UN and international alliances.
Although it was not a formal confidence vote, Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema had urged the government to resign if it could not win backing for its foreign policy.
Mr Prodi’s government had been forced on the defensive over the continued deployment of 2,000 Italian troops in Afghanistan, with strong opposition from some of his more left-wing coalition partners.
Plans for the expansion of a big US military base in Vicenza, northern Italy, had also sparked protests both within his government and on the street, with large demonstrations in Vicenza at the weekend.
US President George W Bush wants to strengthen the base by transferring from Germany to Italy another 2,000 US soldiers, taking the total number stationed in Vicenza to nearly 5,000.
Update: Matthew Shugart has an interesting post on the subject.
