Premier hoping Mastella can soon return to job - Premier Romano Prodi said on Thursday that he will temporarily take over as justice minister so that the sudden resignation of Clemente Mastella from the post would not upset the government's work.
Speaking to parliament a few hours after Mastella confirmed his decision, Prodi said he hoped the Catholic politician would quickly disprove corruption allegations and then return as justice minister.
''The government's work must carry on without interruption and without losing speed,'' said Prodi, who needs the support of Mastella's Udeur party in parliament to survive.
Mastella made it clear at a press conference on Thursday morning that at least for now he has no intention of bringing down the government.
He said his small Catholic party would no longer be part of Prodi's administration but would continue to provide crucial support in parliament. Later, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano officially accepted Mastella's resignation and rubber-stamped Prodi's arrival as interim justice minister.
In his address to parliament, the premier again expressed his solidarity with Mastella ''as a politician and as a friend'', stressing that he had relied on the Udeur party in the past and would continue to do so ''in the future''.
Without the Udeur's three senators, Prodi would lose his majority in the upper house and the government would fall.
Mastella's announcement that he was quitting followed news that his wife was being placed under house arrest for allegedly trying to dictate certain hospital appointments in their native Campania region. He told parliament he wanted to be with his wife and to defend her against ''stupid'' attacks by ''extremist fringes'' of the judiciary.
It later emerged that he too was under investigation in the same probe into an alleged web of corruption centred on the Udeur party in the Campania region.
Prodi glossed over Mastella's fierce attack on the prosecutor behind the probe and praised the ''institutional sensitivity'' his ally had shown by resigning.
Justifying his decision to step into Mastella's shoes, the premier said it would make for a seamless continuation of the government's justice policies and also ensure that its support in parliament was unaffected.
However, at his morning press conference, Mastella indicated that his party's support would come with a price.
''We'll be quite demanding, not like before when we accepted compromises. We'll respect the programme but we'll uphold our values on the Church, on civil unions and on foreign policy,'' he said.
Mastella continued to vent his bitterness over the accusations against himself, his wife and 23 people connected to his party in Campania. ''We are not the heads of an association between mafia and politics. We are a party that demands respect,'' he said, lambasting the methods used by investigators in the probe and the arrest orders.
He expressed regret that the affair had stirred up a long-simmering conflict between the judiciary and certain areas of Italian politics.
