The Italian President Sergio Mattarella He was re-elected this Saturday by the Parliament, after a marathon of votes that revealed the divisions of the government coalition in a crucial period of post-pandemic economic recovery.
Mattarella, 80 years old, was re-elected for a seven-year term, reaching a large majority of 759 votes out of a total of 1,009 senators, deputies and regional leaders qualified to participate in the vote.
The re-election of Mattarella guarantees a phase of political stability, and also ensures the retention in office of the prime minister, mario draghi, who at one point was among the favorites for the presidency.
The eventual transfer of Draghi to the presidency would have triggered a political crisis given the need to find another head of government supported by the same broad coalition that currently supports him, which includes all the parties with parliamentary benches except the extreme right of the Brothers of Italy.
“This is wonderful news for Italians,” he reacted Draghi.
The political parties were unable to agree on an alternative candidacy during the first seven rounds of voting that began on January 24.
Mattarella, who ends his first term on February 3, assured on numerous occasions that he did not want to be re-elected for another seven-year term, but this Saturday, at the request of the parties, he stated that he accepted before the blockade in Parliament to appoint his successor.
“Circumstances have forced him to accept given the impotence of the parties,” explained Massimo Franco, an editorialist for the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.
Mattarella he will be the second head of the Italian state to be re-elected, after Giorgio Napolitano in 2013, something unusual in Italian republican history.
For Guido Cozzi, an economist at the University of St. Gallen, “an extension of Mattarella’s mandate is ideal for the financial markets.”
And with Draghi at the head of the government, the injection of European funds and the planned investments are “guaranteed for the second consecutive year,” he explained to AFP.
According to the press, Draghi met at length with the head of state on Saturday to convince him to accept a new mandate “for the good and stability of the country.”
Although he has been elected for a new seven-year term, he can resign whenever he sees fit.
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