Italian govt survives second confidence vote
Italy’s government today survived the second confidence vote in two days tied to funding for the country’s military operation in Afghanistan, giving final approval to the measure despite opposition from some far-left members of Premier Romano Prodi’s coalition.
Had the government lost the vote, it would have had to resign.
Yesterday, the government survived a vote of confidence in the Senate tied to spending for the mission.
The second vote in the upper chamber examined funding for all overseas peacekeeping missions, including Afghanistan.
Prodi had said in an interview on Wednesday that he was confident all the senators in the chamber, where his coalition holds slim, two-seat majority, would close ranks and support the funding, despite some opposition by coalition politicians to Italy’s involvement in Afghanistan.
The measure passed on Friday with 161-0 in favour, as the conservative opposition led by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi abstained from the balloting to protest at the government’s resorting to the confidence tactic.
In Italy, the government often attaches legislation to confidence measures as a way to speed a bill’s passage by closing the ranks of coalition lawmakers and avoiding lengthy debates and amendments.
The government won yesterday’s vote with a similar result of 159-0.
The vote authorised more than €130m in spending for the Afghan mission. Overall, the bill includes €488m to continue funding 29 military and civilian missions in 18 different countries, as well as €17.5m for humanitarian missions in Afghanistan and in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.
The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, approved the funding law last week by a wide margin, but Berlusconi’s opposition forces supported the measure because it was not tied to a confidence vote.
While the Prodi government is sticking to its campaign promises to withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of the year, it supports the Afghan mission because of Nato and EU involvement.
Italy has some 1,800 troops in the Afghan cities of Kabul and Herat, and Nato recently asked the government to increase the contingent’s strength.
