Support for Italian President Sergio Mattarella to stay on for a second term quickly swelled on Saturday among party leaders after days of failed balloting to find an alternative candidate and amid the risk that protracted political squabbling would erode the nation’s stability and international credibility.
Mattarella’s term ends on Feb. 3. The president, who is 80, has repeatedly said he doesn’t want another seven-year stint as head of state. He even recently rented an apartment in Rome to prepare for his move from the presidential palace atop the Quirinal Hill.
His office didn’t immediately say if he was re-considering his previously announced decision, reports AP.
The calls for him to stay in office came during the latest round of balloting by 1,009 eligible lawmakers and special regional delegates failed to give any one candidate the minimum 505 votes needed for victory.
The next vote was set to start in late afternoon. Among those pressing for Mattarella are right-wing leader Matteo Salvini and former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who just a week ago reluctantly relinquished his own quest for Italy’s highest office, which the Constitution says must represent national unity.
“This is a moment of unity, and we must feel that as a duty,” Berlusconi, who heads the conservative Forza Italia party, said in a statement from Milan, where he was recently hospitalized for medical tests.
”But unity today can only be found around the figure of President Sergio Mattarella, of whom we know we’re asking a great sacrifice” in the higher interests of the country.
The chorus calling for a Mattarella encore also encompassed the opposite end of the wide spectrum of parties in Premier Mario Draghi’s nearly year-old pandemic unity government.
Source: Bahrain News Agency