ITALY: Italian president Giorgio Napolitano yesterday began a round of consultations to resolve the constitutional crisis prompted by the resignation of prime minister Romano Prodi on Wednesday.
Senior figures in Mr Prodi's centre-left coalition were hard at work behind the scenes trying to put together a new and ideally more durable centre-left coalition due to be led again by Mr Prodi.
As the shock waves of Wednesday's Senate defeat on the government's foreign policy subsided, senior centre-left figures focused on just how to form a credible government that would avoid the necessity of having a general election just months after Mr Prodi's desperately close April 2006 general election victory.
Given that the Prodi government was brought down on Wednesday by just two votes from the extreme left parties, Rifondazione Comunista and Italian Communists, it was significant that Rifondazione leader Franco Giordano had this to say yesterday: "We don't want to see some form of technical or institutional government, we've made it clear for some time that we are opposed to this. We've got to rebuild a unity of the centre-left, we have restated our confidence in Romano Prodi and I think there are all the necessary conditions [for a new Prodi government]."
As of now, the ball is very much in the court of President Napolitano, who, after having consulted with all the government and opposition parties - a consultation due to end this evening - will be faced with three basic choices. Firstly, he can ask Mr Prodi to attempt to form a new government, presumably with a slightly changed majority. Secondly, he can opt for a broad-based "institutional" or "technical" government featuring non-elected public figures. Thirdly, he can dissolve parliament and call an early general election.
Much attention yesterday was focused on the intentions of both the ex-Christian Democrat UDC party, currently with the centre-right opposition led by media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi and on former UDC leader Marco Follini, a long-time critic of Mr Berlusconi. Support from either the UDC or Mr Follini could pave the way for a new government led by Mr Prodi.