Prodi Raises Profile at Home, Anger in Brussels

Earlier this week, Prodi circulated a 55-page page manifesto on the future of Europe and the leftist parties in Italy.

Entitled “Europe: the dream, the choices,” the document urges Italy’s center-left parties, referred to as the “Olive Tree” bloc after former Italian Prime Minister Prodi’s own 1996 center-left coalition government, to unite and run under a single banner in next year’s European Parliament elections.

The European Commission denied on Wednesday that Prodi wants to step back into the fray of Italian politics, and said he would stay in his post as head of the Brussels executive until his term ends next year.

Rivalry with Berlusconi

But the move has caused many of Prodi’s colleagues in the European Commission to wonder what provoked the normally reserved economics professor from Bologna to release such a document. They suspect that it has to do with the ongoing rivalry between Prodi and Italy’s current prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Seven years ago, Prodi chased the effusive businessman out of office, only to watch him return to power in 2001.

Since July, when Berlusconi took over the rotating presidency of the European Union, the two political arch-enemies have clashed several times.

Berlusconi drew the ire of the Commission when this summer he compared German member of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz to a Nazi concentration camp guard. Berlusconi also surprised the Brussels executive by inviting Russia and Israel to join the European Union.

Earlier this month, Prodi disowned Berlusconi’s views on Russia’s handling of the arrest of Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and its behaviour in Chechnya, only a day after Berlusconi publicly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Not electioneering

Now it’s Prodi’s turn to come under criticism from the very body he heads. In his defense, European Commission spokesman Gerassimor Thomas said Prodi’s manifesto was not an attempt to enter Italian politics.

“As far as I’m aware there isn’t a manifesto, but a document presented by Prodi containing the president’s vision of the future of Europe,” he said in a briefing. He added that Prodi drafted the document as a private person, not as the Commission’s president.

In the document – which is currently only available in Italian – Prodi discusses alternatives to Italy’s present conservative coalition under Berlusconi. He also alleges that Italy’s media are being increasingly manipulated by the prime minister, who is also a billionaire media tycoon.

The bitter rivalry between Prodi and Berlusconi is now being fought out in the ranks of the European Parliament. Pat Cox, the parliament’s president, said he wants to hear an explanation from Prodi.

“Mr. Cox feels that there is a question to be answered. We want to know exactly what is going on,” Cox’s spokesman, David Harley, told the Reuters news agency.

German European Parliament member, Markus Ferber of the conservative Christian Democratic Union reacted angrily to Prodi’s document. “Prodi cannot dance at two weddings at the same time,” he said in a statement.

Another German MEP from the conservative faction, Hans-Gert Pöttering, told an Italian newspaper that Prodi should maintain neutrality and not get mixed up in domestic politics.