Italy's environment minister faces a razor-edge vote over his handling of a garbage crisis in Naples, with members of the ruling center-left coalition backing opposition calls for his resignation.

The Senate, where Prime Minister Romano Prodi has only a two-seat majority, will vote tomorrow on a motion blaming minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio for the mountains of rubbish that have piled up in the streets of Italy's third biggest city.

Pecoraro Scanio, leader of the Green party and dubbed by media "Signor No" because of his often uncompromising stance, would not be forced, technically, to step down if the vote goes against him.

But Prodi, badly bruised by the sudden resignation of his justice minister last week after it emerged that he and his wife were under investigation in a corruption probe, can hardly afford another embarrassment.

Pictures of the trash-strewn streets of Naples and the Campania region, where waste disposal first became an emergency 14 years ago, have shocked Italians and hurt Prodi's center left government, which also runs the city and the surrounding region.

Despite Prodi's appointment of a former national police chief as 'trash czar' to take charge almost two weeks ago, the situation has not significantly improved, with 2-meter high piles of garbage still rotting in many villages.

While leftist politicians have been quick to point the finger at the local version of the mafia, the Camorra, which is heavily involved in waste management in the area, experts say political incompetence and corruption are also to blame.

Pecoraro Scanio says he is being made a scapegoat for a crisis he did not create.

"The real problem is not the garbage or the environment minister. Everything becomes a pretext to try and sink Prodi," he said in an interview with La Repubblica daily yesterday.

But he has few friends even within Prodi's nine-party, Catholic-to-communist coalition. Former justice minister Clemente Mastella, who has said he would only give "external" support to the government after resigning last week, said over the weekend Pecoraro Scanio should go.

And centrist leader Lamberto Dini, who has often threatened to withdraw his support from the government, said he would vote with the opposition tomorrow.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/22/2008 page12)