There is bis and bis. Because from today, with the double mandate in Mattarella, a comparison can be made on a second time by a head of state. Then, in 2013, it was Giorgio Napolitano’s turn to respond to the appeal for the renewal of the post. Nine years later, the different nuances of the ways in which the epilogue was reached emerge.
Talking about it was Enrico Letta, one of the few who can say that he has bet twice on an encore in the Quirinale ‘roulette’. The then deputy secretary of the Democratic Party in 2013 went to lead the government of broad agreements that was born as a result of Napolitano’s double mandate. In short, a front-line witness. “There was the idea that political leaders would go to Mattarella but I thought that, in a phase in which the constitutional flaws are already many, the best choice is that the group leaders go”, he told the big voters of the Democratic Party.
The two encores have a common starting point: the emergency situation, now weighed down by Covid, the political and institutional stalemate. In recent days there have been the impossibility of the parties to find an agreement on a new name and the swirl of burnt names. In 2013 there were the 101 in the Democratic Party who earthquake the Democratic Party, a very fragile political framework delivered by the polls and Beppe Grillo ready to invoke the street protest and march on Parliament.
With this framework, in 2013 it was decided that party leaders should ask Napolitano for the ‘sacrifice’. So in turn it was Pier Luigi Bersani (with Letta), Silvio Berlusconi (with Gianni Letta) and Mario Monti, the leaders of the three main camps, who went up to the Colle from the president. Shortly after, after a quick meeting in Montecitorio ‘Korea’, it was the turn of the governors-major voters to be received by Napolitano. The formal note released by the Quirinale at the end of the day spoke of a “request for national unity and cohesion” made by everyone.
The scheme used to get to Mattarella’s encore was however different, even in a context that is no less emergency and extraordinary. The request made by the leaders, as Letta explained, was considered “another constitutional flaw”. Perhaps also in reference to the candidacy, burned, of the second position of the state.
And then he turned his gaze to Parliament. After all, it was the big voters who struck the first blow in the sixth ballot, Friday, with 336 votes to the head of state despite the fact that no indications had been received from the parties to this effect. This is why it was decided that the majority group leaders would be the ones to climb the Hill, to bring the voice of Parliament. To follow, a delegation of the great voters of the Regions. And Mattarella, although he had “other programs”, eventually gave the green light.
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