The center-left coalition led by economist Romano Prodi narrowly won both houses of the Italian Parliament in hotly contested national elections, official tallies showed Tuesday, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi refused to concede defeat.
Prodi and his coalition won by margins so minuscule that nagging questions remain about whether the center-left will have the political capital to govern and enact crucial economic reforms. The bruising election also left Italy more divided than ever, “split in two,” as Italian newspaper headlines blared Tuesday morning.
Prodi, a former university professor and professional bureaucrat, said he is confident his coalition can form an effective government.
“My government will be politically and technically strong,” he said. “We can govern for five years”–a full term–“and will govern also for those who did not vote for us.”
But Berlusconi was having none of it.
Leaders of his conservative coalition suggested they would demand a recount in the lower house of Parliament, where only 25,000 votes, out of more than 38 million ballots cast, separate the two sides. It is a margin of less than one-tenth of 1 percent.
“No one now can say they have won,” Berlusconi said Tuesday evening, ending a 48-hour silence he had imposed on himself since showing up at a polling place with his 95-year-old mother to vote Sunday.
“We will not hesitate to recognize the political victory for our adversaries,” Berlusconi said, “but only after the necessary legal verification procedures have been completed.”
Among other steps, the election results, which the Interior Ministry released Tuesday, must still be approved by the Supreme Court, and parliamentary committees would be charged with hearing any formal challenges.
Berlusconi and his associates listed a series of possible irregularities, including more than a million spoiled or blank ballots and hitches in the transmission of results from outlying villages to a central office in Rome.
Berlusconi also suggested establishing a so-called grand coalition, done in some parliamentary systems when no faction has won a majority, and the left and right come together to form a government and end political stalemate.
“I don’t think it would be good for the country to go ahead in a sort of civil war,” Berlusconi said.
Prodi’s coalition responded that Berlusconi was “falsifying reality” and dismissed his contentions.
Some analysts suggested Berlusconi’s challenge was a bluff.
“It is the last gasp of someone trying to do anything he can to delay the end,” said James Walston, a political scientist at Rome’s American University.
In addition to the house of deputies, the Interior Ministry also released results for the Senate, where the outcome rested with the counting of votes by overseas Italians who were choosing six seats. Four of the six went to Prodi’s faction and two to Berlusconi, giving the center-left a two-seat advantage.
Prodi used his appearance before journalists earlier Tuesday to sketch in broad terms the agenda of his likely government. He said he would focus on Europe, in contrast with Berlusconi’s emphasis on Washington, and attempt to unify the country and repair damage done by months of political squabbling.
Prodi has said he plans to reinstate an inheritance tax for the richest citizens and cut payroll taxes in an effort to revive business and growth.
