Prodi Asserts Victory as Berlusconi Voices Doubt

A confident Romano Prodi insisted that his center-left coalition’s Italian election victory was on solid ground, even as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the vote fraudulent and demanded a recount.

But Berlusconi later appeared to back away from his allegation of fraud, releasing a statement late in the evening in which he said the very thin margin of victory “requires a scrupulous check to ascertain any possible error or irregularity.”

“We have won,” Prodi said earlier in his hometown of Bologna. “It’s useless for Berlusconi to find excuses or cause delays. He must go home.”