Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi used the occasion of Liberation Day to urge Italy's squabbling political blocs to cool a heated climate that has simmered on despite the centre left's recent election win.
"On a day like this, which celebrates the unity and liberty of the Homeland, I feel it is my duty to send all political forces a strong invitation to resolutely leave behind them the bitter clashes of the electoral contest and recreate a dialogue that is the premise and instrument of good government," Ciampi said.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi's refusal to concede defeat to premier-elect Romano Prodi and his repeated allegations of electoral fraud - now disproven- have kept tensions high. Alleging that Prodi's razor-thin April 10 victory showed a country riven by differences, Berlusconi first called for a grand coalition and then put himself forward as a possible national-unity president.
Prodi's coalition appears to have ridden out the bumpy election aftermath but arguments over posts and other fissures have already emerged in his gathering of Communists, post-Communists and centrist Catholics. A call to trim Berlusconi's virtual monopoly of private TV has enraged the centre right and split Prodi's own front.
On Tuesday Ciampi said he was convinced that Italy was "much more united" than the picture presented by its politicians.
Tuesday was the 61st anniversary of Italy's liberation from Fascism by the Allies during World War Two.
