The newly appointed Italian Prime Minister, ex-communist Mr Massimo d'Alema, yesterday opened a two-day confidence debate in the Lower House of Parliament by delivering a government programme speech which stressed both his commitment to social democracy and to the fiscal policies of his predecessor, Mr Romano Prodi.
Mr d'Alema, leader of Democratic Left and the first ex-communist to serve as Prime Minister, was sworn into office on Wednesday at the head of a broad-ranging centre-left coalition, largely composed of Mr Prodi's "Olive" coalition forces, but also reliant on the support of two smaller parties, the ex-Christian Democrat UDR and the Marxist splinter group, PDCI.
In his maiden speech as Prime Minister, Mr d'Alema stressed his commitment to institutional and electoral reform, to reform of the judiciary and to the fight against organised crime.
He drew most applause from the government benches when he praised the work done by his predecessor, Mr Prodi, whose 28-month government fell two weeks ago when the Marxist hardliners, Rifondazione Communista, withdrew their support in protest at the 1999 Budget proposals.
Pausing for a minute-long round of applause for his predecessor, Mr d'Alema then stressed his government's commitment to the policies of fiscal probity pursued by Mr Prodi, saying: "We have a responsibility to pursue the good policies of those who went before us . . .
"The imperative of this government will be to not interrupt the improvements made to public finances and the economic and financial strategy laid out by Romano Prodi, policies which allowed us join European Monetary Union."
Underlining the continuity between the incoming and outgoing centre-left governments, Mr d'Alema intends to present exactly the same Budget Bill, word for word, which led to Mr Prodi's downfall.
In a speech which marked the considerable distance that he and his party have travelled down the road of social democracy and away from communism, Mr d'Alema also committed his government to supporting NATO, to extending the current privatisation process to public services and to introducing job incentives by way of tax reforms and reduced labour costs.
Calling for employers, unions and government to renew quickly a 1993 incomes pact which proved vital in reducing Italy's annual deficits in line with the convergency requirements of monetary union, Mr d'Alema significantly did not renew Mr Prodi's commitment to introduce legislation reducing the working week to 35 hours by 2001.
Mr Prodi had made that commitment to Rifondazione Communista in October last year in order to secure its support for his Budget and guarantee his government's survival.
Although Mr d'Alema promised that a Bill to reduce the working week would come before parliament, he carefully avoided specifics, leading commentators to speculate that he intends to propose a smaller hours reduction in order to win the approval of UDR, which is strongly opposed to a 35-hour week.
Although Mr d'Alema's coalition is stretched across an even broader ideological canvas than that of Mr Prodi, he is expected to win tonight's confidence vote at the conclusion of the debate. Under the Italian constitution, a general election cannot be held during the last six months of the State President's term of office.
Given that President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro's term expires on May 25th, 1999, this means that a general election would have to be called before November 25th, now a seemingly remote possibility.