Rome - Italy's two houses of parliament convened Tuesday for the first time since the centre-right led by Silvio Berlusconi convincingly won parliamentary elections two weeks ago. By mid-morning the 322-member upper house Senate had elected a long-time Berlusconi aide, Renato Schifani, as its speaker.
The swiftness of Schifani's election contrasted with the drawn out debates that have characterized past sessions of the Senate when parliament was fragmented into dozens of parties.
But the centre-right's solid victory in the April 13-14 elections and the failure of small parties on the extreme left and right win enough votes to be eligible for parliamentary seats, has left the Senate divided into fairly clear-cut majority and minority camps.
Still, the leader of the federalist and anti-immigration Northern League, Umberto Bossi, brought some colour to proceedings, when, ignoring his ally Berlusconi's recent pleas not to use inflammatory language, he issued a warning to the centre-left minority.
"I don't know what the Left wants, but if they are looking for a clash I have 300,000 men" ready to mobilize, Bossi said, adding that the Northern Leagues' "guns are always warm" to blast through federalist reforms if necessary.
The Northern League's election performance was even better than expected in Italy's northern regions, and firebrand Bossi has been tipped as a possible reforms minister in Berlusconi's future cabinet.
Later Tuesday or on Wednesday, the lower house Chamber of Deputies was expected to vote as its speaker Gianfranco Fini, leader of the post-Fascist National Alliance - a party which merged with Berlusconi's People of Freedom for the elections.
Once both speakers have been sworn in, President Giorgio Napolitano will hold consultations with all parliamentary groups and then formally ask Berlusconi to form a government.
The government will then have to be approved with confidence votes in both houses of parliament - a process which is expected to be completed by the end of next week.
