ITALY's centre left election winners voted their own man into the powerful post of Speaker of the Senate (upper house) at the opening of parliament yesterday.
Senators of the centre left Olive Tree alliance rose to their feet to applaud after Mr Nicola Mancino, a former Christian Democrat interior minister, won the election on the second ballot with 178 of the 314 votes cast. The Olive Tree with the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) at its core, won control of the Senate in the April 21st general election. Yesterday was an historic day for modern Italy the day when leftist forces finally got their hands on the levers of power.
"This is an excellent result. It is a first victory for the Olive Tree and will be followed by many others," said Mr Cesare Salvi leader of the large former communist PDS in the upper house.
When Prof Romano Prodi of the PDS arrived outside Palazzo Montecitorio, the Italian lower house, he needed umbrella coverage for the ritual photo opportunity. The prime minister elect is a first time deputy and he joked with reporters that he would need their help to find his way round the house.
Inside the chamber, corridors were alive with a first day of school atmosphere, as political friends and rivals alike exchanged cheery greetings while waiting for the tedious voting procedures to finish.
Although parliament convened yesterday, it may be another two weeks before Prof Prodi forms Italy's 55th government of the postwar era. When the task of electing speakers for both houses has been completed President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro will begin consultations with the major political forces before nominating a prime minister elect, a nomination certain to be given to Prof Prodi.
Given that some form of institutional and electoral reform represents a Prodi government priority, the Olive Tree coalition was keen to start this 13th legislature on a note of collaboration by offering the position of speaker in either of the two, houses to the centre right opposition.
. Italy's most famous television showman stepped down as artistic director of the state broadcaster RAI yesterday pending a criminal investigation into allegations that he solicited bribes from commercial sponsors.
Mr Pippo Baudo, a household name who appears almost nightly on RAI television variety shows, denied wrongdoing after being ordered by magistrates in Milan to appear for questioning.