Prodi Prepares Return to Italian Politics

Although Prodi ends his term as Commission head in October, he has for months been preparing his entry into the Italian domestic political scene and has said he will launch his campaign immediately after his term in Brussels ends. Throwing down the gauntlet to arch rival Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Prodi said: "I am back to win and I will start touring Italy in November, in each and every city, in order to re-launch the Ulivo project and to boost the center-left," he said last week in a long letter to the Espresso weekly. Prodi has said the center-left is ready "to take on general elections at any time if and when the government were to fall through as a result of an internal crisis." In the last few months, the center-right governing coalition has faced several crises, with Berlusconi struggling to keep his fractured four-party coalition together. (EUobserver.com)