At times he strays into what one of his predecessors, Massimo D'Alema, described as "planetary gaffes".
Former prime ministers Romano Prodi and Massimo D'Alema received 14 and 12 votes respectively.
Mr D'Alema's intentions are honourable, but Italy's problems may be too urgent for all this.
And Mr Prodi would be quite happy, say some Roman politics-watchers, to see Mr D'Alema fall.
It did rather well, stealing a lot of votes from Mr D'Alema's Democrats of the Left.
They are both in their 40s: Mr D'Alema, at 49, is six years the older.
ECONOMIST: D’Alema and Veltroni, rivals on Italy’s left | The
The worried Mr D'Alema knows that Mr Fini represents only a third-plus of the conservative opposition.
Another former Prime Minister, Massimo D'Alema, said he was "a highly disputed figure... for his conception of power".
Former prime minister Massimo D'Alema said Mr Berlusconi had done a "stupid thing" by demanding Mr Ruggiero's resignation.
Mr D'Alema's ex-communists and the little parties that emerged from the wreckage of the Christian Democrats are rattled.
Besides, Mr Prodi's wing of the centre-left has been coming up, while Mr D'Alema's has been going down.
Mr D'Alema appeared to orchestrate procedure so smoothly that he was soon viewed as the chief political puppeteer.
ECONOMIST: D’Alema and Veltroni, rivals on Italy’s left | The
With the rank and file behind him, Mr D'Alema fended off Mr Veltroni.
ECONOMIST: D’Alema and Veltroni, rivals on Italy’s left | The
Both Mr Berlusconi on the right and Mr D'Alema on the left reckoned he would be a safe pair of hands.
In the midst of crises, Mr Scalfaro picked the other four, including the incumbent, Mr D'Alema, and Mr Ciampi himself .
For Mr Berlusconi, who seemed to have the populist measure of grim-faced, ambitious Mr D'Alema, the new man poses a quandary.
Mr D'Alema has therefore proposed a legislative short-cut to approve a new electoral law that would remove the need for a referendum.
He has plenty of support, notably from his French counterpart, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and from the new Italian government led by Massimo D'Alema.
Massimo D'Alema, the prime minister, who hails from the main party of reformed communists, has carried parliament and the country with him.
They are now at Mr D'Alema's throat, having already prevented him from making the structural reforms needed to put Italy's economy in order.
To make matters worse, the man Mr D'Alema displaced as prime minister last October, Romano Prodi, has started up a new party of his own.
As Mr D'Alema's popularity wanes, so Mr Prodi's seems to wax.
Mr D'Alema hoped to win Mr Berlusconi's support for political reform.
ECONOMIST: Walter Veltroni risks being too nice to Silvio Berlusconi
Unlike Mr D'Alema, whose own party is the coalition's biggest, Mr Amato has no personal base, so may try to cast himself as primus inter pares.
As Mr Fini would point out, the ex-Communists themselves, now in power in Italy under Massimo D'Alema, took some time before renouncing outright their Soviet links.
Mr Veltroni was, it is true, constantly undermined by Massimo D'Alema, a PD baron and former prime minister whose refusal to take a back seat weakened the centre-left.
So how seriously should Mr D'Alema take Mr Ocalan's reassurances?
By contrast, Mr D'Alema's plans for a new constitution collapsed.
ECONOMIST: D’Alema and Veltroni, rivals on Italy’s left | The
Mr Prodi has also gained by remaining aloof from another big decision: Mr D'Alema's offer to Antonio Di Pietro, the magistrate-turned-politician, of a safe seat in a forthcoming Senate by-election.
After his ten-month earlier stint as prime minister, he was chairman of Italy's antitrust authority, then minister for constitutional reform in Mr D'Alema's first government (1998-99), then, once again, treasury minister.
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