Prodi fans erupt after tense wait

ROME - Romano Prodi fans celebrated in the style usually reserved for Italian cup final victories, taking to their cars and honking their horns, many driving past the Rome home of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

While Berlusconi's allies disputed Prodi's claim to have won yesterday's general election, hundreds of centre-left supporters who had waited up to 12 hours to see Prodi had no difficulty taking his word that he was Italy's new leader.

"Dear friends, we have won," Prodi declared to flag-waving supporters crowded into Piazza Santi Apostoli outside his campaign headquarters.

"Send the thief packing," came a reply from the crowd, one of the more polite insults Prodi's supporters yelled at Berlusconi throughout the wait for results after polls closed.

"Ole, ole, chi non salta e' Berlusconi," sang the leaping crowd in front of Prodi's campaign truck, adapting a popular football chant, which in this version translates as "Ole, ole, the only one not jumping is Berlusconi."

Berlusconi, the media tycoon who also owns soccer team AC Milan, has said the only thing that really united Prodi's wide coalition that stretched from centrist Roman Catholics to hard-line communists was their desire to get rid of him.

For late-comers to the square, the partying belied the tense, almost desperate atmosphere that reigned for much of the 12-hour wait.

Although the first exit polls gave Prodi's "Union" coalition a sizeable majority in both houses of Parliament, the lead evaporated as data trickled in.

The crowd gasped when a giant TV screen above the stage where Prodi had planned to give his late-afternoon victory speech revealed the vote count was neck and neck.

When Prodi finally took to the stage it was merely to say "Sorry I'm late", and announce the results were unclear.

He then returned to his campaign rooms.

The first sign that Prodi's people were sure they had secured a majority was when members of his team threw campaign leaflets, ticker-tape style, from their office windows.

Soon after, Prodi was back on stage to accept the cheers.

"It's a moment of joy," said Giancarlo Lo Monaco, a 25-year-old student.

The crowd sang "Bella Ciao", a song from Italy's war-time resistance against fascists and Nazis. It has become an anthem for the left.

After Prodi pushed through a mob of reporters to his headquarters, clutching a startled granddaughter to his chest, a supporter called out: "Good night, Romano."

Another supporter saw it differently: "No. Good night, Presidente". 


Lower House

49.81%
Romano Prodi's centre-left Union bloc

49.74%
Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition

Upper House

One - Berlusconi's lead in Senate, 155 versus 154
Six of 315 seats to be declared.
500,000 - maximum number of ballots reportedly spoilt 

 
The Italian job

* Believed to be the closest election in modern Italian history.
* Narrow win to centre-left in Chamber of Deputies, counting continues for Senate.
* Prodi's winning margin in chamber was 25,224 votes - a tiny fraction of Italy's 47 million eligible electors.
* The ballot winners gain 340 of the lower house's 630 seats no matter how small their margin of victory, with the runners-up getting some 277 seats.
* The next government will not take office for at least a month, with Berlusconi set to stay on in a caretaker capacity until Parliament nominates a successor to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, whose mandate expires in May.
* The president must name the new prime minister, and Ciampi wants to leave the task to his successor.
* The Chamber of Deputies and Senate have equal power. One bloc must win both to prevent stalemate.

- REUTERS