- Title: ITALY: PRIME MINISTER PRODI TRIES TO AVERT GOVERNMENT COLLAPSE
- Date: 1st October 1997
- Summary: ROME, ITALY (OCTOBER 1, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/PAN: EXTERIOR OF PARLIAMENT 0.08 2. SV/MV/GV: ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER ROMANO PRODI OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT/ PRODI SPEAKING WITH JOURNALIST/ GREETING PEOPLE OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT (3 SHOTS) 0.47 3. SV/PAN: PEOPLE SAYING WHAT'S HAPPENING ABOUT THE CRISIS (ITALIAN)/ PRODI SAYING I'V
- Embargoed: 16th October 1997 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROME, ITALY
- City:
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVA4ZNGJVBWXWGUAPSIJN25OKDAQ
- Story Text: INTRO: Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, steeled for a showdown with his rebellious hardline ally Communist Refoundation, met President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro in crisis talks on Wednesday (October 1) to try to avert a government collapse.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Prodi's 17-month-old centre-left coalition came under strain after the hard left refused to back the 1998 deficit-cutting budget, which the government considers essential to fulfil its goal of joining a single European currency at the outset.
Prodi's meeting with Scalfaro led some critics to speculate he was going to offer his resignation, but a spokesman for the Greens, a member of the coalition, said Prodi intended to discuss the political situation and not to offer his resignation.
Scalfaro, who has the sole right to dissolve parliament, was believed to be fiercely opposed to a general election 3-1/2 years ahead of schedule.
Treasury Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, presenting the 1998 budget in the Senate, pleaded that the government's achievements in putting the economy on the right track should not be wasted.
Earlier in the day Prime Minister Romano Prodi said he did not want the government crisis that has thrown his centre-left majority into disarray.
"I've been doing everything I could, do you think I want this crisis?" he told a group of people outside his offices after they asked him not to "fool around".
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