In order to win this most recent election in Italy, Prodi had to round up a broad coalition of the left that included everything from Catholics to communists. The talk has been that holding it all together would be challenging, making any chances of actually governing nearly impossible. Add to that thin majorities and you are looking at more stagnation in Italian politics. Berlusconi had somehow stayed in office for the full term, a rarity in modern Italian politics, though his results hardly lived up to his promises.
Italian friends of mine tell me that making changes of any kind in Italy is not possible without major structural reform and anyone who even tries to reform won't last. With all of that in mind, Prodi can't even assign key roles in his new government so it might just be time to start watching the clock and seeing if he can hold on for six months.
The parliament, meeting for the first time since Prodi's Union coalition won a hotly-contested elections earlier this month, failed to elect Speakers for either the lower house Chamber of Deputies or the upper house Senate.
