THEY WERE BETTER GOVERNED WITH HORSES FOR SENATORS:

Berlusconi Stubborn in the Face of Defeat (ALESSANDRA RIZZO, April 20, 2006, The Associated Press)

Premier Silvio Berlusconi is hanging tough, refusing to concede to center-left leader Romano Prodi even as a top court confirmed his defeat in the lower house of parliament in one of Italy's closest elections.

"We'll fight. They'll have to deal with us," Berlusconi was quoted as saying Thursday in the newspaper La Repubblica. Other newspapers published similar comments, and many reported the conservative leader has no intention of calling Prodi.

Berlusconi 'is biding his time' (David Willey, 4/20/06, BBC)

The final figures show by just how narrow a majority Mr Prodi's centre-left coalition won the poll - only 24,755 votes in a total of almost 38 million.

Under new proportional voting rules passed by the last parliament, the winner in the lower house gets an immediate bonus of 70 seats in the 640 seat chamber.

So even though his majority is wafer-thin, Mr Prodi in theory can win any confidence vote in the new Chamber of Deputies quite comfortably. [...]

The final result for the Senate will not be announced for some days.

According to the latest election computations, Mr Prodi enjoys a slim two-seat majority in the Senate, but here he receives no winner's bonus.

Under new voting rules, six senators representing Italians living overseas have been appointed for the first time. The political allegiance of some of these new senators from North and South America, from Africa and from Europe is by no means certain.

At least one of the new senators has said he is only going to make up his mind whether to support the centre-left or the centre-right when he arrives in Rome.

There is also a small number of senators-for-life, including a Nobel Prize winner, and several former presidents, whose vote could be crucial in a confidence vote.

Until the two chambers meet on 28 April, the arithmetic of who actually controls the Senate may not become clear. [...]

Mr Berlusconi, in the opinion of more than one leading analyst, is already conducting the beginning of his next election campaign. He believes that even if Mr Prodi does succeed in forming a government next month, it will be short lived.

He is also well aware that Italians will in any case be returning to the polls shortly.

Local elections are due in May and a national referendum is also due to be held shortly over the controversial constitutional reform measures Mr Berlusconi pushed through the last parliament.

Italy looks for brave new future (Ben Richardson, 4/20/06, BBC News)

If anyone doubts the difficulties the country's government will face trying to boost growth, they need only look at what happened to Professor Marco Biagi.

An expert on labour law and industrial relations, Mr Biagi was assassinated on 19 March, 2002, in Bologna by the left-wing terror group the Red Brigade.

His crime had been to help draft, and advocate, changes to Italy's rigid and slow-moving labour market.

On the one hand, Mr. Berlusconi ought to step aside and let an orderly transition occur--on the other, it's Italy.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 20, 2006 1:09 PM