“There are conditions to create a government and to govern, even if the country is divided in two,” centre-left leader Piero Fassino said on a radio program today. But while the votes cast abroad were being counted, Prodi’s coordinator for Italians living abroad, Franco Danieli, told a press conference that the coalition had garnered four of the six seats. According to official returns, Berlusconi’s conservative allies held a one-seat advantage in the upper Senate, with 155 seats to Prodi’s 154. The razor-thin margins raised the prospect of a political crisis in which the two claimants might each control a different house of parliament. All eyes were on the Senate, however, which Prodi also needed to win to form a government.

Under Italian electoral law, 55 percent of seats are awarded to the overall winner regardless of the scale of victory, giving Prodi’s forces 340 seats in the 630-member lower house. Final returns today showed Prodi winning the lower Chamber of Deputies by one tenth of a percentage point – 49.8 to 49.7 percent. Prodi’s coalition claimed at least four of the six seats, giving it the necessary margin for victory, but official results hadn’t yet been released. “We can govern for five years; the law allows it although we will have to work hard,” Prodi told journalists as he arrived this morning at his downtown Rome headquarters. Hours earlier, Prodi had told supporters that his lead, although razor-thin, was enough to form a government.
The outcome of the bitterly contested election hung on today’s count of votes cast by Italians living overseas. Isn’t that exactly what is missing so much in care of elderly people?”. Centre-left challenger Romano Prodi claimed victory by the narrowest of margins today, but Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s forces demanded a recount in one chamber as Italy’s election failed to deliver a clear verdict.

“Nursing home bosses will have to be discreet so that elderly men don’t try to get more than they are paying for.”Gisela Zohren, 56, a former prostitute who now works at a help centre for sex workers called the Midnight Mission in Dortmund, said life was getting tougher on the streets and at least half the women she met wanted to leave the business.Thousands of prostitutes had come from eastern Europe and South America, swelling the ranks of the local women forced on to the streets by the shortage of employment.She said: “Prostitution taught me to listen and to convey a feeling of safety. Squeamishness and a reluctance to take on a caring role dealing with personal hygiene have left 6,400 vacancies nationwide.Diakone Westfalen plans to offer 30 prostitutes aged from 20 to 40 the chance to train for a new career, with two years of courses and vocational training.Heinz Oberlach from Germany’s Federal Labour Agency said the idea of using prostitutes as care workers was “very logical” and “fits together like the pieces of a puzzle” But Ms Keuhen warned there was one danger. It was an obvious move.”Despite high unemployment, running at 12 per cent, nursing homes in Germany are seriously understaffed. Officials say they are often better at the job than trainee nurses.
Rita Keuhen of Diakone Westfalen said: “They have good people skills, aren’t easily disgusted and have zero fear of physical contact These characteristics set them apart. The retraining scheme, backed by Diakone Westfalen, a welfare programme that runs nursing homes across the country, is based on a simple observation: prostitutes, because of their experience of dealing with people, make excellent carers of the elderly. Prostitutes in Germany are learning the secret of survival in the modern world – transferable skills. The state of North Rhine Westphalia is spending €1m (£700,000) of local and EU money to get sex workers off the streets and into care homes All they have to change is their uniform.

de Villepin, especially the Prime Minister because, unlike M Chirac, he is – or was – a man with a future. But his Napoleonic willpower-and-action approach to politics has proved unpopular, ineffective and, above all, a sham.The man who once wrote that “sacrifice is better than the compromise which discredits” has ended up making another shabby U-turn, just like all the elected politicians he so despises.. de Villepin withdraws the whole of his equal opportunities law – a series of measures drafted after last November’s riots in the high-immigration suburbs of which the CPE was just one part.However, without the support of the union movement – and with the Easter holidays approaching – protests can be expected to peter out, thus bringing to an end one of the most unedifying moments in recent French political history.The clear losers are M Chirac and M. I wish to salute the combativity, wisdom and maturity of our young people who have given a lesson in responsibility to the rabble-rousers in government.”Several universities remained blockaded yesterday as some die-hards vowed to continue the struggle until M. “This is a historic victory that follows a historic attack on French youth,” said Karl Stoeckel of the National Union of Lyc?Students (UNL).The Socialist Party’s presidential hopeful, Jack Lang, said it was “time to draw a veil over this ridiculous farce … If this was not understood by everyone, then I regret it.”Our responsibility is to prepare the future of our country.

I very much hope we can all come together to move forward,” he said.Though the word “repeal” was tactfully avoided, trade unions, student organisations and left-wing parties had no difficulty in recognising the government’s climbdown as a rout. Disorder in universities and high schools threatens the organisation of end-of-year exams Street demonstrations endanger the safety of young people. All this makes imperative a rapid exit from the crisis,” he said.Giving no sign he takes personal blame for the fiasco – still less that he intends resigning – the Prime Minister said he had wanted to “act quickly” in introducing the CPE “because that was what the dramatic situation and the despair of the young demanded … de Villepin appeared on radio and television to read out the death rites for his cherished creation.”For several weeks, our country has passed through a period of agitation.