Italy’s parliament votes for president

[Baluarte]

Italy’s parliament votes for president

Voting began in Italy’s parliament on Thursday to elect the next head of state, with Franco Marini, an 80-year-old former speaker of the Senate and moderate trade union leader, seen as the frontrunner after a last-minute deal between the centre-left Democrats and the centre-right led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

But it remained to be seen whether Mr Marini would secure the two-thirds majority needed of the 1,007 electors to win in the first round, with the Democrats and their leftwing allies divided internally over his candidacy.

The electors were called individually to cast their ballots in the secret vote, with the process expected to last most of the morning. A second round is scheduled to be held in the afternoon if no candidate emerges with the necessary majority. From the fourth round onwards, the winner requires only an absolute majority.

The seven-year mandate of Giorgio Napolitano, the incumbent president, expires in mid-May.

His successor faces the immediate task of trying to break the deadlock from inconclusive general elections held in late February. Mr Berlusconi’s People of Liberty hopes the agreement on Mr Marini, a former Christian Democrat now close to the Catholic wing of the Democratic party, will pave the way for the formation of a “grand coalition” government between the two parties.

But Democrats said such a coalition was not part of the deal on Mr Marini. Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the Democrats, has repeatedly rejected Mr Berlusconi’s power-sharing proposal, viewing it as electoral suicide when Italy eventually returns to the polls. Should the next head of state fail to broker a solution he has the power to dissolve parliament ahead of fresh elections, possibly in early July.

Italy elections

News and commentary on the latest political manoeuvring ahead of Italy’s general election
Mr Bersani’s leadership has been in doubt since his party’s disappointing showing in the February elections, narrowly gaining a majority in the lower house but falling well short of a majority in the senate. Defeat for Mr Marini would deal another blow to Mr Bersani who has been openly challenged by Matteo Renzi, the reformist mayor of Florence.

Mr Renzi on Wednesday night slammed the choice of Mr Marini, as did Nichi Vendola, leader of the Left Ecology and Freedom party (Sel) allied to the Democrats. Mr Vendola said his party would vote instead for Stefano Rodota, an 80-year-old lawyer widely respected on the left who is the candidate of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

The centrist Civic Alliance led by caretaker prime minister Mario Monti was also divided over the choice of Mr Marini.
Italy’s president is more than a ceremonial figurehead and can play an important role in times of crisis, as Mr Napolitano demonstrated in 2011 by engineering the appointment of Mr Monti as technocrat prime minister when Mr Berlusconi’s parliamentary majority was crumbling amid intense pressure from financial markets.

Mr Berlusconi, who is facing three separate trials, is said by his aides to want a head of state willing to shield him from what he calls his political persecution by a biased judiciary.

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[alfieb]

The vote failed. It will need to go to a second round.

[Baluarte]

update:

Centre-left's Prodi fails in latest vote for Italy president

(Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Romano Prodi failed to win election as Italy's new president on Friday after his nomination by the centre-left bloc enraged Silvio Berlusconi and increased the chances of a snap election in the summer.

Berlusconi's centre-right boycotted the vote for Prodi, one of the media magnate's oldest political foes, and protested outside parliament, accusing centre-left boss Pier Luigi Bersani of breaking a promise to put forward a candidate it could accept.

The vote was the fourth in a complex election process by 1,007 electors from both houses of parliament and regional representatives. A fifth and sixth vote are expected on Saturday.

Centre-left officials said they would continue with Prodi as their candidate on Saturday but the failure of four votes so far underlined the raging political animosity and uncertainty more than 50 days after an inconclusive general election.

The presidential vote is closely intertwined with the search for a stable government capable of combating a severe economic recession in the euro zone's third largest economy.

Prodi won only 395 votes, well short of the absolute majority of 504 he needed, indicating that centre-left rebels had again disobeyed party orders in the latest of many rebuffs for Bersani. Around 100 centre-left parliamentarians appeared to have refused orders to vote for Prodi.

Berlusconi's camp said that if Prodi was elected this was likely to prevent any government being formed and would push Italy towards new polls, possibly as soon as late June or early July.

A crowd of around 200 anti-Prodi demonstrators protested outside parliament and several parliamentarians led by Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, wore T-shirts marked "Not this" and "The devil wears Prodi".

STALEMATE

The election of the next head of state to succeed Giorgio Napolitano, whose term ends on May 15, is a major step in efforts to break the stalemate since elections in February which left no party able to govern alone.

Italy has been without an effective administration for months while the election campaign and the long deadlock since have stalled any action to combat a recession that matches the longest since World War Two.

But the bitter battle over the presidency has underlined how hard it will be to reach political consensus on anything, let alone vital economic reforms or changing an electoral law that is one of the main causes of the current impasse.

The election left the centre-left as the biggest group in parliament but its failure to win a majority handed Berlusconi decisive influence over the negotiations for both a new government and the next president.

The former prime minister has repeatedly said the nomination of a broadly accepted presidential candidate was the only way to form a government capable of addressing Italy's problems and avoid an immediate return to the polls.

He has several times rejected his old adversary Prodi, 73, an internationally recognised figure who is currently the United Nations envoy for Mali and the Sahel region.

(Writing by Barry Moody, editing by James Mackenzie and Gavin Jones)

[Baluarte]

Napolitano reelected.
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Italy crisis: President Giorgio Napolitano re-elected

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has been re-elected following a cross-party appeal to run for office again to resolve a growing political crisis.

Mr Napolitano, aged 87, secured the required 504 votes in parliament.

Politicians had turned to the widely-respected president after five rounds of voting failed to produce a successor.

A caretaker government has been governing Italy following February's inconclusive general elections.

The political deadlock has compounded concern about the stability of Italy whose economy, the third-biggest in the eurozone, is mired in recession.


I cannot shun my responsibility towards the nation”

On Saturday, Mr Napolitano became the first president in Italian history to secure a second seven-year term.

He easily won the simple majority of votes out of 1,007 electors.

Mr Napolitano put forward his candidacy after the appeal by main party leaders - both on the left and right.

"I consider it necessary to offer my availability," said Mr Napolitano, who had been due to step down on 15 May.

"I cannot shun my responsibility towards the nation," he added.


Protesters outside the parliament denounced Mr Napolitano's re-election
And in a brief address shortly after the vote, Mr Napolitano acknowledged that the situation in the country remained "difficult".

"I strongly hope that in the next few weeks, starting in the next few days, all sides will fulfil their duties, with the aim of strengthening the institutions of the state," he added.

Italian party leaders earlier urged parliament to "show unity" in re-electing widely-respected Mr Napolitano.

Outside the parliament building in Rome, protesters held a rally against the push for Mr Napolitano's re-election.

Many demonstrators were supporters of Beppe Grillo, the leader of the 5-Star Movement.

Mr Grillo denounced Mr Napolitano's re-appointment as a "coup d'etat".

Parliament began trying to elect a new president on Thursday, but MPs voted five times without producing a clear winner. In increasing desperation they turned to the man who was supposed to retire, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.

On Friday, the leader of Italy's centre-left alliance, Pier Luigi Bersani, promised to step down as soon as a new president was elected.

Mr Bersani announced the news to his Democratic Party (PD) after many centre-left MPs refused to back his preferred candidate for president.

The centre-left failed to gain an overall majority at February's general election despite coming first.

[The Lawspeaker]

What a mess...

[alfieb]

What a mess...
And when someone from the Low Countries says that your government is a mess, then it's really bad.

[The Lawspeaker]

And when someone from the Low Countries says that your government is a mess, then it's really bad.
Well it's Belgium that held the record. 2 years without a government. We have been running from one election to the other for the past 10 years. Ugh.

[Baluarte]

It would seem the global bosses are happy with the decision.
Although in all honesty, today's market movements cannot be explained by anyone.......

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Investors cheer Italy after president elected

(Reuters) - Hopes of an end to two months of political deadlock in Italy drove its financial markets higher on Monday after the re-election of 87-year-old Giorgio Napolitano suggested parties may be nearer a deal to form a government.

Napolitano, elected after days of squabbling thanks to a broad agreement between some of Italy's main political groups, had earlier made clear that he favoured a new government over potentially destabilising new elections.

An inconclusive vote in February that split the parliament between three litigious parties left the euro zone's third-largest economy in limbo as it struggles to escape a deep recession.

Irate businessmen have been urging politicians to overcome divisions and take action to stem a wave of bankruptcies and spiralling unemployment.

"The markets are rallying because the new mandate to Napolitano averts the risk of snap elections and paves the way for a government backed by some of the major parties," said a Milan-based trader.

Italy's main stock market index, the FTSE MIB, was up 1.8 percent at 0706 GMT, outperforming gains in Paris, London and Frankfurt. Italian stocks accounted for more than half of the top gainers on the leading pan-European stock index, led by a 4 percent gain for insurer Generali.

Yields on Italy's benchmark 10-year BTP fell to just above 4 percent, a level not seen since late January.

BROAD COALITION?

Napolitano, the first president in Italy's history to be re-elected for a second term, will spell out his strategy later on Monday.

A source in the presidential palace told Reuters Napolitano could either hold a quick round of consultations starting on Tuesday or skip them altogether because he has already sounded out party leaders officially twice since the deadlock began.

Italian newspaper said Giuliano Amato, a former prime minister, was likely to be asked to form a new government.

"Given the strong support behind Napolitano's re-election, it is likely that a grand coalition government will find support too," Credit Suisse said in a note to clients.

An agreement of Italy's centre-right and centre-left blocs, with the addition of the small centrist contingent of Mario Monti, led to the choice of Napolitano on Saturday.

The anti-establishment 5-Star-Movement of former comedian Beppe Grillo had supported leftist academic Stefano Rodota and branded the choice of Napolitano as a desperate attempt by traditional parties to cling to power.

"A broad political coalition does not currently represent a huge risk factor for Italy: the country has a limited budget deficit and does not need a budgetary correction," said Alessandro Giansanti, a strategist with ING.

"Now the focus will be on pro-growth policies, rather than on austerity."

(Additional reporting by Giulio Piovaccari in Milan, editing by Patrick Graham)

[The Lawspeaker]

General rule of thumb: if the investors and bankers are happy... the people should be crying or rising up.