Premier Romano Prodi's center-left coalition lost a confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies by a single vote today, ending the second-longest serving government in Italy since World War II.
The vote in the lower chamber of Parliament was 313-312 on the confidence motion brought by the government.President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro asked Prodi to stay on as caretaker premier while the head of state decides whether to call early elections or ask someone else to be premier.
The swing vote today came from Prodi's own coalition, a defecting deputy from Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini's tiny Italian Renewal party.
"I'm not bitter," Prodi said.
The Communist Refoundation party, led by Fausto Bertinotti, decided over the weekend to withdraw support for Prodi, saying the proposed 1999 budget did not do enough to stimulate jobs, particularly in Italy's lesser developed south, where the jobless rate runs about double the national average of 12.5 percent.
Prodi, who has relied on the Communists in the lower Chamber of Deputies for a majority throughout his 2 1/2-year term, was forced to call the confidence vote to determine whether his coalition still commanded a majority.
Arguing that Italy needed political stability to maintain its place within Europe and the European Monetary Union, Prodi went before Parliament on Wednesday and appealed to his frayed majority to reunite.
"Now we should go to the polls," media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right opposition, said today. He has been arguing that a Prodi win would not spare the government more crises.