All roads really do seem to lead to Rome for Romano Prodi, the man who opinion polls say will become Italy’s next prime minister.
Too bad he does not want to live there.
In a gaffe likely to haunt the center-left’s candidate for
April elections, Prodi said the eternal city was too obsessed with politics to make his personal residence. He needs to escape to his native Bologna in northern Italy.
“I like Rome ... but I won’t live there,” Prodi told a radio disc-jockey, in comments splashed across Italian newspapers on Saturday. He says his words were twisted and that Romans should not be offended.
But the perceived jab at Italy’s capital was not his first. A month earlier Prodi was quoted as saying he would not live in Rome “unless I was dead.”
There is no official residence for the Italian prime minister but he traditionally keeps a home in Rome even if he often travels to other houses elsewhere in Italy. Despite the gaffe, Prodi is expected to do the same.
The center-right government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, facing an uphill struggle for re-election on April 9, pounced on Prodi’s slip of the tongue.
Berlusconi’s allies threw up posters across the city, telling Prodi that if he doesn’t like Rome, he should stay home.
“Twice is too much. The contempt that Prodi has for Rome is becoming unacceptable,” cried Health Minister Francesco Storace.
Even Rome’s leftist Mayor Walter Veltroni, a close ally of Prodi’s, objected to the remarks and said he hoped Prodi would try to explain himself better.
“I’m sorry, but Prodi is wrong,” Veltroni was quoted by the Italian media as saying.
Prodi’s gaffe came during a massive media blitz by Berlusconi, a savvy, media tycoon who has seamlessly moved from TV channel to TV channel in the past two weeks, getting out a feel-good message he hopes will get him re-elected. The less-media friendly Prodi, hoping to capitalize on concerns about the economy, has been eclipsed by all the Berlusconi coverage. The comment about Rome, which also made the front pages on Saturday, was an unwelcome exception.
Prodi tried to clear the air with an interview with Rome’s leading newspaper, Il Messaggero.
“They asked me: ‘Do you like Rome?’ I said: ‘yes’,” Prodi said. “But not to live because they don’t do anything but become consumed talking about politics. Now I’m going back to Bologna. But the city is beautiful and the Romans are friendly,” he said.
“As you can see, it’s nothing but positive about Rome. The only negative aspect is about the fact that, when I am in Rome, I can’t escape from politics, not even for a second.”
