Italian President Matterella re-elected for second term

By Susy Hodges

The failed attempts to replace Mattarella during seven rounds of balloting have laid bare the deep divisions within the wide-ranging coalition government led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

His coalition includes the main centre-left and centre right parties as well as the right-wing Lega, the populist 5-Star movement and a range of smaller parties. Draghi had made clear his own ambitions for the top job but failed to find enough backing.

Aged 80, Mattarella had repeatedly said he wanted to leave office but with the country’s stability at risk, he changed his mind on Saturday in the face of appeals from Draghi and other political leaders. Speaking after the vote, Mattarella said he had dropped his retirement plans because he felt a sense of responsibility in light of the health and economic challenges facing the nation.

The role of President

In Italy’s political system, the president is a powerful figure who gets to appoint prime ministers and is often called on to resolve political crises. Governments here only survive a year on average.

Unlike in the United States or France where heads of state get elected in a popular vote, Italy’s president is elected through a secret vote in an electoral college of 1,009 senators, lawmakers and some regional delegates.  The voting carries on until a candidate obtains a majority and the secrecy surrounding the process has prompted comparisons to the conclave to elect a new Pope.

The media outlets here in Italy almost invariably refer to the unsuccessful ballots to choose a president as a black smoke session in a reference to the black smoke that comes out from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney during a papal conclave to signal an inconclusive round of voting. Mattarella’s re-election marks the second time in succession that an Italian president has been asked to renew his seven-year mandate. In 2013, political leaders appealed to the then-head of state, Giorgio Napolitano, who was almost 90, after they too failed to find a consensus candidate.

Napolitano reluctantly agreed but stood down two years later after a new government was installed.  Many commentators here believe Mattarella will almost certainly do the same once the political situation allows it and Draghi could well end up as his successor.