ROME — Remember the song? “Two different worlds/we live in two different worlds.” Tune in to the politicians, and you know that in this post-election, pre-election springtime of sturm und drang, two different Italys dwell in two different worlds: Pluto and Uranus.

The rancor that characterized the campaign continues. “Oh, just go home,” Prodi said rhetorically to Berlusconi. The answer to that: Berlusconi’s allegations of fraud at the polls. A mere 20,000 votes separate Il Cavaliere (as Berlusconi is known) from Prodi. Therefore, said Berlusconi, “The result must change” (“deve cambiare”). That “must change” unnerved many. “They are trying to delegitimize the results,” former magistrate Luciano Violante, a deputy from the Party of the Democratic Left (PDS), protested, “in a climate of intimidation and threats.” “Stop demonizing Berlusconi!” exclaimed a spokesman for Forza Italia (Berlusconi’s party).

Yet there are signs that Berlusconi’s own allies are unhappy with him. Beppe Pisanu, Minister of the Interior, and Berlusconi apparently quarreled yesterday over the former’s not pressing to have a wholesale recount: “whose side are you on?” Berlusconi is reported as saying. The neo-fascist Alleanza Nazionale‘s Ignazio Russo today said flatly, “I have no knowledge of fraud.”

A few on the left acknowledge that Prodi himself made errors that shrank his initial advantage. One was that Il Professore (“the Professor,” as Prodi is known) had used in-group economic terms that the public did not understand. He also frightened many middle class voters by threatening to apply an inheritance tax. This rankled some, for, as Il Giornale, a right-wing newspaper, reported, Prodi himself had already taken advantage of Berlusconi-promoted legislation to hand over to his children nearly a million tax-free dollars.

Prodi has now set out to calm the troubled waters, saying today that the general climate has already improved. Not enough, however, for either the Pope or for President Bush to phone congratulations, even though Angela Merkel and a few others (Zapatero, Chirac) have. Among those who have not: the Israelis, fearful that a Prodi government will tilt toward support of the Palestinians. For his part. Prodi went on record that he will follow the policy line on Palestine of the European Union.

The cat-and-mouse game being played at home is as complex as an 18th century minuet. Along with local elections coming up in Rome, there’s the question of replacing Italy’s octogenerian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, whose seven-year term ends in mid-May. Another crucial deadline looms: a referendum to ratify a Berlusconi-sponsored constitutional revision giving the premier broader powers. Which comes first: a new government? or the referendum? If Berlusconi can force postponing the formation of a new government by recount after recount, and charges of fraud dominate the pre-referendum period, this helps explain Prodi’s haste to form a new government.

On Wednesday, the executive committee of Fausto Bertinotti’s Rifondazione Comunista held a fractious session. Fausto Bertinotti became a major player in the election last weekend when his party’s share of the vote shot up to 7.5% for the Senate (but only 5.8% in the Chamber of Deputies). Compared with the Comunisti Italiani party of Oliviero Diliberto — a 1998 left-wing split-off from the Rifondazione, which got 2.3% of the vote this year — Bertinotti’s cashmere Communism seems pretty tame fare for some in his party. At Wednesday¹s executive session, an assembly-line-and-railroad-worker faction sometimes described as Trotskyite threatened to wrench its 11 of Refondazione‘s 41 winning deputies in parliament out of Rifondazione, should the party back Romano Prodi for premier. Said a faction spokesperson: “This [backing the centrist Prodi] would signal the end of Rifondazione’s position at the heart of opposition to the politics of the padroni” (bosses).

In dispatches and radio broadcasts earlier this month, the Rifondazione‘s left-wing Pane e Rose (Bread and Roses) faction, led by Marco Ferrando and Francesco Ricci, had already complained that, whereas “everyone is asking if we are trustworthy for Prodi, we want to know if we can trust him.” Bertinotti, they charged, is selling the party out to the “sirens of capitalism,” with the result that young voters preferred the Party of the Democratic Left (PDS), led by Massimo D’Alema, the party built on the old PCI (Italian Communist Party) which is the second-largest in the Prodi-led center-left coalition. Rifondazione has become “a party of divisive politics that builds false illusions in the working class,” said a Pane e Rose editorial yesterday. Losing eleven deputies in parliament is unikely to block either Bertinotti’s move into the power circle or the formation of a Prodi government. Bertinotti, meanwhile, was busy denying that he will accept a cabinet post. He is also a candidate for the prestigious slot of Chamber of Deputies president.

Judy Harris — a veteran ex-pat journalist and former Wall Street Journal and TIME magazine staffer in Italy — is the Rome correspondent for DIRELAND. Her previous exclusive reports for DIRELAND on Italian politics include: October 1, 2005 — Italy–The Church Re-Enters Politics; July 22, 2005 — Judges On Strike Against Berlusconi; June 13, 2005 — Italy’s Referendum a Fiasco; June 11, 2005 — Italy’s Referendum: It’s Really About Abortion; March 6, 2006 — Will Berlusconi Lose?; March 9, 2006 — Italian Elections: What a Difference a Week Makes; March 12, 2006 — Italy’s Bizarre Election Campaign: Silvio’s Spies and Cartoon Fairy Tale Videos; March 14, 2006 — The Berlusconi-Prodi TV Debate; March 15, 2006 — After the Debate; March 17, 2006 — Italy: The Election Campaign’s Dark Underbelly; April 10, 2006 — Berlusconi Defeated? Maybe Yes, Maybe No; April 10, 2006 — Prodi Claims Victory: Latest Election Returns; April 11, 2006 — Latest Returns Show Fragile, Uncertain Center-Left Majority; and April 12, 2006 — 5 Gays in New Italian Parliament.

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