The future of Italy's prime minister was in doubt Thursday after he decided to risk a confidence vote in the Senate in a final bid to save his government. Romano Prodi, in office for 20 months, has only a slim chance of surviving the vote, and observers have said a Senate loss could spell a new period of instability in Italian politics.The prime minister lost his razor-thin majority Monday when a centrist party in his center-left coalition withdrew its support. The move wiped out the government's one-vote majority in the Senate.
Prodi met Thursday morning with President Giorgio Napolitano, after which he decided to go ahead with the Senate vote Thursday evening.
Knowing he faces likely rejection, Prodi could have decided to resign before the vote. His decision to go ahead with it may be a complicated political gamble.
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