S.O.S. ITALIA

In the first part of this post I will try to convey to you something you will hardly find in any of the Italian MSM, i.e. the exasperation and serious concern for their freedom and safety of more than 50% of the Italian people who have not voted for the centre-left coalition of Mr Prodi (The Italian electorate "residing" in the country gave Berlusconi's Casa delle Liberta' the majority of the votes).

Mr Prodi's alliance with former Italian Communists who now call themselves Partito della Rifondazione Comunista is already costing the Italians some of those elementary rights for which they fought alongside the Allies sixty years ago.

Now, after enjoying one of the best, longest, and uninterrupted spells of government since the end of WWII, a new dictatorship is looming on the horizon.

For those who live outside Italy surely this doesn't seem possible and my assumption may be regarded as exaggerated.

But we have already witnessed this past week the first signs of it, both in Parliament and in the streets of Rome and Milan.

After appointing the leader of Rifondazione Comunista Fausto Bertinotti speaker of the Lower chamber, and Franco Marini, a former unionist, speaker of the Senate, we are now waiting for the final blow which will tear the country apart: the election of former communist, now party chair of the Democratici di Sinistra (Democrats of the Left), Massimo D'Alema, as new Italian President.

If the new coalition majority elects a leftist president, such

'dictatorship of the majority ... would produce total opposition not only in parliament,'

Berlusconi predicted in the Sunday edition of the Corriere della Sera daily.

And now today's news

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is to submit his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Campi Tuesday three weeks after parliamentary elections.
His designated successor Romano Prodi meanwhile has called for a swift government take-over and hopes to receive the order from the president to form a cabinet in the next days.

'Our objective is to have the government formed on May 4 or 5,

Prodi said at the weekend. However, the question of who would be appointed to most ministries in the future centre-left government was still open, sources in Rome said.
The incoming parliament is expected to elect a new state president in mid May as current President Ciampi steps down.
According to state television, the influential Left Democrats party, members of Prodi's poll-winning leftist coalition, are seeking to put forward party chair Massimo D'Alema as their presidential candidate. D'Alema, a former communist, served as prime minister from 1998 to 2000.
The Berlusconi camp however vehemently opposes a leftist president following the elections Saturday of both Prodi's candidates as speakers in the two chambers of parliament.
Berlusconi has indirectly threatened his designated successor Romano Prodi with pressure on the streets, a newspaper reported Sunday.
If the new coalition majority elects a leftist president, such 'dictatorship of the majority ... would produce total opposition not only in parliament,' Berlusconi predicted in the Sunday edition of the Corriere della Sera daily.
Prodi consolidated his narrow majority with the appointment of his candidates to the posts of speakers of parliament.
The election of Franco Marini and Fausto Bertinotti, two former trade unionists who play key roles within his centre-left coalition, came at the end of two days of chaotic and at times farcical rounds of voting.
In the decisive race for the Senate, where Prodi enjoys only a narrow majority as a result of the April 9-10 general election, Marini was elected with 165 votes out of 322. His centre-right rival, elder statesman Giulio Andreotti, bowed out after receiving 156 votes.
In the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, Communist Refoundation leader Bertinotti received 337 votes, 32 more than the required majority in the 630-strong house.
The results represented a hard-fought victory for Prodi and showed that the former European Commission president will have to rely on the support of minor parties within his Union coalition, and even on the help of independent life senators, in order to govern.
Details of Prodi's list of ministers have not yet been disclosed. But financial expert Padoa Schioppa, a charter member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), is certain to become economics minister, newspaper reports said.
The election of the new president is scheduled for May 13. The left cannot appoint their candidates to all senior government positions, the centre-right alliance said.