Italy's prime minister-in-waiting, Romano Prodi, yesterday stumbled into his first big row since winning this week's general election when he was quoted as saying he would try to get the European Union to change its approach to Hamas.The centre-left leader's aides rushed to correct what they said was a mis-translation. But by then he had come under fire from his opponents in Italy, and even the accurate version of his remarks prompted criticism from a Jewish representative.
The left wing of Mr Prodi's broad alliance made big advances in the vote and can block legislation in either chamber of parliament. There was speculation that its influence was already showing up in Mr Prodi's foreign policy after he was quoted by news agencies as having told the Arab satellite channel, Al-Jazeera: "I shall commit myself at the European level to shape a new position with respect to the new Palestinian government. I am looking with great attention at the signs of an opening being made by Hamas."
A spokesman for the right accused Mr Prodi of complicity in "the worst sort of anti-westernism". The remarks had been translated into Italian from the Arabic voiceover and what Mr Prodi actually said was: "Now I'll get to work in an active way in Europe and we shall see the position in future. Beside, there have been openings by Hamas that are very interesting."
| He meant it and it didn't take long for him to say it. |
The incident is unlikely to further Mr Prodi's stated aim of building a cordial relationship with Washington and, at the same time, re-aligning Italian foreign policy more with Europe. Two days after official figures showed he had won the election, Mr Prodi had been congratulated by France's president, Jacques Chirac, Spain's prime minister, José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, and Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel. But Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, and the US president, George Bush, were waiting for the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to concede defeat.