Prodi resigns

Last April, I covered the Italian elections here, here, and here.

I was happy that challenger Romano Prodi of the center-left beat incumbent Silvio Berlusconi of the center-right. Berlusconi is, after all, a crook.

But the election was close, and, as the BBC is reporting, Prodi has resigned after “after losing a crucial foreign policy vote in the Senate”. The issue? America’s war on terror: “In the vote, several of Mr Prodi’s coalition partners opposed troop deployments in Afghanistan and plans to expand a US airbase in northern Italy.”

It is not clear what will happen now. “President Giorgio Napolitano is now expected to hold talks with political leaders before reaching a decision. He could accept the resignation or ask Mr Prodi to stay in power.”

High drama. Politics as usual in Italy.