Italian Senate speaker fails to seek consensus on forming interim gov´t

Source: Xinhua | 02-05-2008 07:35

ROME, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Italy's general elections appeared almost certain to be held in Spring after Senate Speaker Franco Marini failed on Monday to persuade center-right parties to support an interim government.

Italian Senate speaker Franco Marini meets President Giorgio Napolitano (L) to hand back his mandate to  try to form a new government, at Quirinale palace in  Rome Feb. 4, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Marini, asked by President Giorgio Napolitano to seek consensus for a short-lived administration to oversee an electoral reform, met the leaders of all political parties in an attempt to avoid elections less than two years after the last ones.

After meeting with Italian Napolitano, Marini said on Monday he has given up his work for forming an interim government.

Analysts said Napolitano will have no option but to dissolve parliament and call elections.

If he does, he will close the second shortest legislature in the history of the republic -- 648 days, compared to the 633 days of the one which was swept away by the Tangentopoli scandals in 1993.

In this scenario elections would have to be held between March 30 and April 14.

The system under which Italians now look set to vote uses proportional representation and blocked lists of candidates who are attributed their seats in parliament by the parties.

Several analysts and center-left politicians say the system has worsened the fragmentation of Italian politics and was a factor in the chronic instability of the collapsed government of Romano Prodi.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei