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April 12, 2006

Prodi Elected Prime Minister

Challenger Romano Prodi, fittingly on the left, and Conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Official results give Prodi a narrow win. Berlusconi refuses to concede, citing "many irregularities." AP Story.

After two days of voting, it has been officially announced that Romano Prodi of the center-left coalition has been elected as Italy's Prime Minister. Link to article on cnn.com Although he has defeated the center-right rival, Silvio Berlusconi, in the parliamentary elections, Berlusconi won control of the Senate by one seat - and won't let anyone forget that. Update: Official results now give Prodi 158 Senate seats, 156 for Berlusconi. Prodi had already taken the lower house.

With results like this, the power is split between the two parties. In the past weeks I have witnessed many arguments between Prodi and Berlusconi supporters. Now, however, no one can really claim total victory or total defeat. It's a stalemate among the people, and potentially within the government.

Sidenote: I went to the polls with my boyfriend on Sunday when he went to vote. I was looking at a poster of the 20-or-so different parties in Italy with the politicians' names. There is one party called "Forza Roma" (Go Roma) and the politicians are nicknamed after the players of Rome's soccer team...

Posted by Kelsea  at 12:00 AM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: GP at April 11, 2006 10:02 PM