Given the difficulty in appointing a successor, the outgoing head of state would have accepted an extension that will be finalized in this afternoon’s vote in Parliament
After seven unsuccessful votes, the motion that is being held this afternoon in the Parliament of Rome to elect the new president of the Italian Republic could be the right one, since the political parties have reached an agreement so that the current head of the State, Sergio Mattarella, who concludes his seven-year term next Thursday. Although he had said both in public and in private that he did not want to continue in the Quirinal Palace, where the Presidency of the Republic is based, Mattarella would have allowed himself to be convinced by the inability of the political forces to agree when choosing to his successor.
In this morning’s motion it was already the most voted, by achieving 387 ballots, and that the voters of the Democratic Party (center-left) and the transverse 5 Star Movement abstained or voted blank. Once the support of these two groups is confirmed in the next vote after the agreement between the political forces, Mattarella will very likely exceed 505 votes this afternoon, which represents the absolute majority and marks the necessary quorum for there to be ‘white smoke’.
The current prime minister, Mario Draghi, who was one of the great favorites to become the new tenant of the Quirinal Palace, would have acted as a mediator to carry out this strategy that guarantees institutional stability in Italy. If, as expected, the head of state repeats, Draghi will continue to head the government until next year, when the current legislature ends. Although it remains to be seen how long Mattarella’s ‘bis’ will last, it is likely that he will only agree to remain in office for a few years. This is what his predecessor already did, Giorgio Napolitano, who agreed to a new mandate in 2013 due to the inability of the parties to name his successor, but limiting it to less than two years.
In the expected event that he agrees to a limited extension in time, Mattarella, who is now 80 years old, would give Draghi enough time to free himself from his responsibilities as chief executive and in the next presidential election he can be designated head of state. With this maneuver, the former president of the European Central Bank also pays attention to the great international investors, who feared that his appointment now as Mattarella’s successor would leave a hole in the Government that would end up causing a political crisis. It was a possible scenario and considered very dangerous in a situation like the current one, with the coronavirus pandemic still hitting the country and the arrival of the ‘manna’ from the European recovery funds.
In the agreement to achieve a ‘bis’; Of Mattarella, the change of position of the general secretary of the League, Matteo Salvini, leader of the conservative bloc, of which the Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia are also part, has been decisive. “There is a part of Parliament that does not want to reach an agreement, so things remain as they are: Draghi continues as prime minister and Mattarella as president,” Salvini acknowledged this Saturday in the corridors of Parliament. The re-election of the head of state, on the other hand, is a setback for Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Brothers of Italy.
Given the magnificent vote expectations predicted by the polls, Meloni hoped that Draghi would be elected president so that he would leave the Government and early elections would have to be called.
The voters of Brothers of Italy could be one of the few who do not support Mattarella’s ‘bis’ in this afternoon’s motion, which according to Meloni “does not respond to the interests” of the country and yes to the “lowest calculations of opportunity” .
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