The lack of agreement between the parties means that there are already four unsuccessful votes to appoint the new head of state
Once again, the Italian political class is managing to confirm the terrible impression that most of its compatriots have of it, as confirmed by opinion polls, in which only 13% of citizens say they trust the parties, the lowest figure of the fifteen institutions asked about in the surveys. Although the election of the new president of the Republic had been debated for months before the end of Sergio Mattarella’s seven-year term, the political forces have arrived at the moment of truth with their homework undone. They have shown it with the four unsuccessful votes that have taken place this week in the Parliament of Rome to try to elect the new head of state.
There was not even a ‘white smoke’ this Thursday, when the quorum was reduced by going from two-thirds of the classroom to an absolute majority (half plus one of the ballots). After abstentions and blank votes, in this last motion the one who added the most support was Mattarella, with 166. Those voters were thus trying to pressure him to repeat in office, something that the outgoing president has said repeatedly that he has no intention of do. He has even already made the move, leaving the Quirinal Palace, where the Presidency of the Republic is based.
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Belloni, head of the secret services, is emerging as a possible consensus candidate
Given the lack of agreement between the 1,009 deputies, senators and representatives of the regions who are responsible for voting for the new head of state, some take the motions with a certain laugh. That is why they write on the ballot the names of impossible candidates, such as footballers, entertainment personalities, radio and television journalists and even the presenter of the Sanremo song festival, Amadeus. The start next Tuesday of this unmissable event for most Italians is undoubtedly a great incentive for the election of the president to be resolved earlier, since there will not be many voters who are willing to miss the festival. Something similar happened in 1971, when the arrival of Christmas led to the election of the president finally being resolved: Giovanni Leone was elected on December 24 after 23 ballots held over sixteen days.
hole cards
Both the conservative bloc, formed by the League, Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia, as well as the left of the Democratic Party and the transverse 5 Star Movement still do not fully show their cards. The right, yes, could have changed its position and would now be willing to elect the current prime minister, Mario Draghi, as head of state, something that it has rejected until now. The leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, announced this Thursday that the voters of the League will not vote blank or abstain in the motion this Friday and was willing to support a figure of an institutional nature and who is not affiliated with any match. “Don’t ask me names,” he told journalists when they wanted to know if he was referring to Draghi or to another possible candidacy being considered by the left, that of Elisabetta Belloni, head of the Italian secret services.
Given the crossed vetoes that have stopped other female names, such as those of the former mayor of Milan Letizia Moratti or the Minister of Justice, Marta Cartabia, Belloni could become the first woman to be elected head of state. The renowned former magistrate of the Constitutional Court Sabino Cassese also seems to have possibilities, whose name was already considered in the election seven years ago in which Mattarella was elected. Cassese himself has ruled himself out for the position, remembering that he is 86 years old, but has a profile that could get voters out of the maze in which they have been lost since voting began on Monday.
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