Italy's government collapses

The demise of Prodi's center-left coalition caps weeks of bitter political fighting but sends Italy into a new period of uncertainty while either an interim government is installed or fresh elections are called.

Prodi had spent much of his time in office simply trying to survive politically. His coalition contained a wildly disparate lineup of parties that fought among themselves. With only a narrow majority in Parliament, Prodi found himself routinely challenged by the center-right opposition.

He faced nearly three dozen confidence votes before finally losing the latest one, 161-156.

Crippled by the relentless bickering, he failed to enact many of the visionary economic and electoral reforms he had promised. Ultimately, the end came thanks to the machinations of a longtime ally, the head of a tiny party who turned on him.

"Halting this government's work is a luxury Italy cannot afford," a subdued and clearly saddened Prodi told senators before Thursday's vote. He warned that the country could be headed "once again into a vacuum that makes it ungovernable."

Prodi, a former economics professor known for a somewhat plodding style, had survived a confidence vote just a day earlier in the lower house of Parliament, where he had a comfortable majority. But he was not able to muster sufficient support Thursday in the more evenly divided Senate.

It is now up to President Giorgio Napolitano, the nonpartisan head of state, to consult with leading politicians and elder statesmen to figure out what to do next. He could call elections or ask an elected politician to form an interim government.

Any election, however, would be undermined by a problematic system that complicates the way winning parties are given seats in Parliament and that can weaken a government, as it did Prodi's.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's richest man and the former prime minister unseated by Prodi in the most recent election, in April 2006, is eager to return to power. Polls show he would win an election held now.

"We are asking for elections immediately," Berlusconi said after the Senate vote.

But Prodi's heir apparent, the most likely candidate to lead the center-left, advised against elections.