Prodi trying to control ministers' controversial remarks
Only a week after forming his government, Italian Premier Romano Prodi has had to publicly rein in his ministers, trying to control the damage from a series of off-the-cuffs remarks that have created controversy and embarrassment.
“Silence Imposed,” Corriere della Sera, Italy’s top newspaper, wrote today. “The premier rebukes his ministers,” said Turin daily La Stampa.
Prodi publicly told his ministers to get to work and not to speak their mind until government policies are agreed upon, after many had made sometimes controversial comments on such issues as rights for unmarried couples, public projects and the abortion pill.
“Ministers cannot express opinions. They must express decisions,” Prodi said today, hours before his government won a vote of confidence in the lower house of Parliament.
“We promised we would bring ’seriousness to the government,”’ Prodi said, quoting from one of his campaign slogans. “This means we must work hard and speak only when decisions are made.”
The public rebuke by Prodi underscores the varied nature of his centre-left coalition, which is made up of two larger mainstream parties and a mixed group of smaller formations ranging from Christian Democrats to Communists.
The coalition’s diversity, combined with its wafer-thin majority in the Senate, has raised concerns over the long-term stability of Prodi’s government.
The premier announced recently that he would gather his ministers early next month for an informal meeting – dubbed ”conclave” by the Italian media – in an effort to promote unity.
Prodi was reportedly angry over some of his ministers’ comments after the government was formed May 17, more than a month since he narrowly won elections over Silvio Berlusconi’s conservatives.
The comments did not necessarily reflect the government’s views, and some were seen as potentially harmful ahead of local voting this weekend across Italy, including in Rome, Milan and in Sicily.
The transports minister, Alessandro Bianchi, announced hours after the swearing-in ceremony that plans to build a bridge linking Sicily to the mainland would be dropped, calling it “the most useless and harmful Italian project of the past 100 years.”
Health Minister Livia Turco had spoken in favour of experimenting with the RU-486 abortion pill, which is not allowed in Italy, and Family Minister Rosy Bindi urged the government to give legal recognition to de facto couples.
The latter touched upon a raw nerve as the coalition has already squabbled over the issue.
Both comments prompted criticism of the church, which in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy still has considerable sway.
