ROME — Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned today after an embarrassing loss in the senate on foreign policy, including Italy's military mission in Afghanistan.
Prodi aides say consultations will begin shortly among politicians.
They aren't ruling out the country's president asking Mr. Prodi to try to form a new government.
President Giorgio Napolitano's office says consultations to see who has enough support to put together a government will begin Thursday.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, left, flanked by his spokeman Silvio Sircana, walks in central Rome on Wednesday. He offered his resignation after losing a crucial foreign policy vote. (Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images)
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Mr. Napolitano is asking the government to stay on in a caretaker role in the meantime.
Mr. Prodi's centre-left government needed 160 votes to win backing from the upper house for its foreign policy program. It received 158 votes; 136 members of the conservative opposition voted against it. Twenty-four abstentions — equivalent to a “no” vote in the Senate — caused the government to lose.
Seconds after the result was announced by the Senate Speaker, opposition legislator applauded and chanted “Resign!”
“Prodi's government has fallen in this room. Let's take note of this,” said Renato Schifani, Senate whip for opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
Italy has 1,800 troops in Afghanistan, which were sent in by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The current government has agreed to keep the troops there, sparking opposition from its own Communist allies.
The radical leftists are pacifists who are against any military action. Some of them have anti-U.S. sentiments and view the Afghan conflict as an American war that Italy should have no part of.
In outlining the government's foreign policy priorities shortly before the vote, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema sought to persuade the radical leftists to go along with his platform. He said Italy is committed to promoting an international peace conference on Afghanistan and strengthening its civilian and economic engagement in the country — as demanded by the Communists — and called for strong political backing in return.
“A country like Italy, which is not a great power, cannot face such delicate and complex challenges without strong and clear political consensus,” Mr. D'Alema said during the wide-ranging hour-long address.
“Remaining there, in such a dramatic theatre, is a tough decision,” Mr. D'Alema said, referring to Afghanistan. “But by being there we can fight for a peace conference.”
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