ROME, Jan 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, was elected to a second term, Lower House Speaker, Roberto Fico, announced late yesterday, after parliament gathered in a joint session and concluded its eighth round of voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mattarella was reconfirmed with a broad majority, namely 759 votes in favour, from a total of 983 lawmakers and regional representatives, actively taking part in the ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I wish to thank lawmakers and regional representatives for the faith they have put in me,” Mattarella, 80, said, in a declaration broadcast live from the Quirinale presidential palace, immediately after receiving the official notice of his re-election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The difficult days of this election, taking place during the serious health, economic, and social emergency we are still going through, call for a sense of responsibility and for the respect of the parliament’s decisions,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These conditions require (us) to not avoid duties, which must prevail over other thoughts and different personal perspectives,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mattarella’s candidacy emerged prominently at the end of a tense week, in which the two major political blocs – the centre-left and the centre-right – failed to agree on a different candidature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a consequence, seven rounds of voting were held since last Monday, all delivering inconclusive results and exposing deep fractures within both coalitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the leaders of the largest parties from centre-right and centre-left acknowledged the stalemate yesterday morning, and agreed on Mattarella’s possible second term, a direct request was submitted to the president by all parties’ whips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a brief talk with Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, Mattarella made himself available, despite having repeatedly made clear, prior to the election, that he would not serve a second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The re-election of a head of state is rare in Italy. So far, only Giorgio Napolitano, Mattarella’s predecessor, had served a second term, and only for less than two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All major political leaders thanked Mattarella for his availability. “This is great news for Italians, and I am grateful to the president for choosing to oblige to the strong will expressed by parliament to reconfirm him to a second term,” Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, said in a note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enrico Letta, leader of centre-left Democratic Party, hailed Mattarella for taking a choice “of great generosity towards the country.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Letta noted, the fact that parties were unable to find an alternative common candidature should not be neglected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right-wing League’s leader, Matteo Salvini said, he was “comforted” by Mattarella’s choice. “I also feel very serene, because I have made (prior to the re-election) all possible proposals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, also a leading figure of the Five Star Movement, told reporters, the re-election was “a victory for the country.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pledging ceremony to reconfirm Mattarella is expected to take place next Thursday, when his first term officially ends.– NNN-AGENCIES <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROME, Jan 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, was elected to a second term, Lower House Speaker, Roberto Fico, announced late yesterday, after parliament gathered in a joint session and concluded its eighth round of voting. Mattarella was reconfirmed with a broad majority, namely 759 votes in favour, from a total of 983 lawmakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":161808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209,286,194],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161806"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/161808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}