Italy's Romano Prodi is scrambling for support ahead of a vote of confidence this week which he must win to stay on as prime minister. Prodi resigned last week after suffering an embarrassing defeat over foreign policy in the upper house. Italy's president gave him a second chance on Saturday by asking Prodi to remain as premier and put his majority to the test in parliament.Prodi needs to prove he has enough support in both chambers of parliament to keep his government afloat. While his fractious Catholics-to-communists coalition has a comfortable majority in the lower house, in the 315-seat Senate his bloc is effectively level with the opposition, forcing him to court outside senators for support.
Prodi appears to have won the backing of one extra senator, a Christian Democrat who served in Silvio Berlusconi's previous centre-right government as deputy prime minister. Barring defections, that would raise Prodi's support to 157 elected senators, against 156 for the opposition, with one independent still up for grabs. The Senate speaker, who hails from the centre left, traditionally does not take part in votes.