2008 Italian government crisis

2008 Italian government crisis

Prodi at the 2007 G8 summit
Date	16 January 2008 – 5 February 2008
Location	Italy
Type	Parliamentary crisis
Cause	Withdrawal of UDEUR's support to Romano Prodi's government
Outcome	Confidence vote lost by the government in the Senate of the Republic Resignation of Prodi Dissolution of Parliament and snap election called

On 24 January 2008, the Italian Senate voted down a motion of confidence in Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, causing the collapse of the second Prodi government.^[1] Prodi's resignation led the Italian president Giorgio Napolitano to ask the president of the Senate, Franco Marini, to attempt to form a caretaker government. After Marini acknowledged an interim government could not be formed due to the lack of a clear majority in the Italian Parliament willing to support it, a snap election was scheduled for 13–14 April 2008.