Opposition politicians have long wondered how Silvio Berlusconi plans to win the next election, which must be held by May 2006. The economy is stagnating; Mr Berlusconi's right-wing coalition is in disarray and trailing in the polls. On the evening of September 13th, they feared they had their answer, when government parliamentarians suddenly tabled a legislative amendment that would change the rules for the election. Romano Prodi, who hopes to replace Mr Berlusconi as prime minister, said the amendment was "tantamount to theft" and threatened to paralyse the legislature unless it was dropped. The new proposal would give the electoral system its biggest shake-up since 1993, when Italy decided to turn its back on the extreme form of proportional representation that was one cause of its chronic political instability.
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