ROME — When he became prime minister last month, Romano Prodi promised his multi-party coalition would speak with one voice. Instead, it has sometimes been a political Tower of Babel.Hardly a week has passed in which one of his ministers or their aides have not said something that has surprised other members of his coalition.

To the delight of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the dissonance has handed the centre-right opposition political ammunition on a silver platter.

The latest coalition leader to unsettle his allies was Paolo Ferrero, minister for social solidarity.

He told a radio station on Monday he favoured the introduction of so-called “shooting rooms” where heroin addicts could register and get the drug under medical supervision.

Ferrero, a member of the far-left Communist Refoundation, said such facilities, already used in some European countries, would reduce risks such as overdoses and AIDS and keep drug users off the streets.

Ferrero, however, apparently did not tell Health Minister Rosy Bindi.

She issued a statement saying Ferrero’s position was a personal one and that there was “not even a hypothesis” that they could become a reality because they were not part of the government programme.

Prodi’s coalition, which won April elections by one of the slimmest margins ever, includes eight parties ranging from Catholics to communists. Counting all ministers and undersecretaries, a record 102 people are in Prodi’s team.

Commentators say the problem can only get worse for Prodi unless he manages to call everyone into line and convince them to sing from the same hymn sheet.

“It’s a natural consequence of the kind of electoral system we have,” said Franco Pavoncello, president of John Cabot University in Rome and a professor of politics.

“When you have a situation where the government is dependant on so many parties, then everyone does whatever they want. It is very difficult to imagine that Prodi will be able to apply the discipline he needs,” he told Reuters.

Another example of an announcement that surprised coalition members came in late May when Research Minister Fabio Mussi said the government might break with the conservative past by favouring embryonic stem cell research.

That outraged the Vatican and surprised some Catholics in Prodi’s coalition. The opposition has threatened a parliamentary vote of no confidence against Mussi, a member of the Democrats of the Left, the largest party in the coalition.

Yet another example of mixed signals in the government came when Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi, a communist, said he opposed a long-planned bridge linking the mainland with Sicily — one of Italy’s largest-ever construction projects.

His proposal was quickly shot down by Infrastructure Minister Antonio Di Pietro, who told him only the entire government could make such a decision.

“The problem of disparate voices is an old one for parties on the left in many countries but especially in Italy,” said James Walston, director of the international relations department at The American University of Rome.

“Here in Italy it’s seems to be worse than elsewhere because every party feels the need to express itself on everything and carve out its own space,” he told Reuters.

Yesterday’s Prodi’s chief spokesman, Silvio Sircana, chaired a meeting with spokespersons and aides of government ministers and stressed the need to speak in unison or not at all.

“This is a government that must communicate and must communicate well,” he told them. — Reuters