As of: 01/28/2022 4:47 p.m
Even in the fifth round of voting, Italy failed to find a new president. The Senate President Casellati, proposed by the centre-right alliance, did not achieve the necessary majority. Dissatisfaction grows between the parties.
After the fifth ballot, Italy is still looking for a new head of state. The 1009 parliamentarians and regional representatives did not find a candidate for the highest office in the republic. Maria Elisabetta Casellati, the current President of the Senate, received the most votes with 382 – as the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Fico, announced after the count in Rome. However, she did not manage to get the necessary majority of 505 votes. Arithmetically, around 60 voters even from their own camp refused to support the Forza Italia politician.
Among others, the right-wing Lega led by ex-Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia spoke out in favor of her before the election.
Centre-right relies on own candidate
The centre-right alliance dared a political showdown in the morning with Casellati’s candidacy. Missing the commitments of the past few days to a joint cross-party proposal, the alliance with Lega boss Salvini surprisingly relied on its own candidate. Salvini praised Casellati as an “institutional candidate” who did not split. He also emphasized that the 75-year-old was a proposal for a woman in the highest office.
Strong criticism from centre-left
The parties of the centre-left alliance, on the other hand, criticize the right-wing go it alone and reject Casellati. They accuse the Senate President of being too politically close to Berlusconi. The former leader of the Social Democrats, Piero Fassino, spoke of a “severe defeat” for Salvini and the centre-right alliance in view of Casellati’s failure. Should Salvini continue to insist on going it alone, this would also endanger the current grand coalition under Mario Draghi.
In the elections of the past four days, the majority of the 1,009 electors abstained because there was no joint proposal from the parties on the table. What makes the election of a successor to the outgoing President Sergio Mattarella so difficult: no political camp has its own majority in the election assembly. Potential candidates have so far been prevented by mutual vetoes.
The anger grows
Meanwhile, dissatisfaction is growing between the parties. The party leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia complained that it was impossible to decide anything with this parliament. The opposition politician spoke out in favor of the people electing the head of state. Before the fifth round of voting, ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s splinter party Italia Viva indicated that it would abstain.
Another ballot will take place today, the counting result is expected in the late evening.
With information from Jörg Seisselberg, ARD Studio Rome