Italy’s ruling parties asked Sergio Mattarella on Saturday to serve a second term as president after failing to find a compromise successor in a week of often fraught voting in Parliament.
To try and end the standoff, Prime Minister Mario Draghi spoke to Mattarella and requested that he remain in office “for the good and stability of the country,” local media reported.
However, a few hours later, Parliament failed to approve the plan after some 380 lawmakers abstained from the vote.
The 80-year old — who has repeatedly ruled out serving again — won nearly 400 votes at the seventh ballot, short of the 505 majority required.
Mattarella’s office has yet to state if the president is on board with the new proposal.
Eight vote could clinch deal
In a further development, the parties in the governing coalition said they had struck a deal to elect him at the next round.
An eighth vote was expected to take place later Saturday.
Parliament has been mired in a near weeklong series of votes to try to agree on a new compromise president.
Round after round of fruitless balloting since Monday has highlighted the deep rivalries among the parties in Draghi’s wide-ranging coalition.
The six-party alliance was formed nearly a year ago to lead Italy out of the COVID-19 pandemic and help it recover economically — thanks to €200 billion ($222 billion) in promised European Union funds.
Italy’s presidency is largely ceremonial, but the head of state wields serious power during political crises, from dissolving Parliament to picking new prime ministers and denying mandates to fragile coalitions.
Prime Minister Draghi, a former European Central Bank chief, had been touted for months as the most eligible candidate for the next president..
But some parties have insisted he is too precious a resource to lose as prime minister.
Major parties back Mattarella second term
Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League party, has backed the move to offer Mattarella a second term, along with billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, who took a failed shot at the presidency himself.
Former prime minister Matteo Renzi’s center-left Democratic Party (PD) also appeared ready to vote for Mattarella.
Italy was in a similar situation nearly a decade ago when Giorgio Napolitano was elected to stay on as president, in an attempt to resolve the political stalemate left by an inconclusive 2013 general election.
mm/dj (AFP, AP, Reuters)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/italy-mattarella-asked-to-stay-on-as-president-amid-voting-quagmire/a-60597324?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf