ROME, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Italy's parliament on Saturday elected President Giorgio Napolitano for an unprecedented second term in a bid to solve cross-party impasse and form a working government.
Napolitano, a member of the former Italian Communist Party who gained a reputation for moderation and impartiality, won the votes of 738 of the 1,007 members of parliament and regional governments.
The 87-year-old was the first president to be re-elected in Italy's history, after the center-left Democratic Party (PD) and the center-right People of Freedom (PdL), its main opponent, reached a last-minute agreement in asking for him to stay on.
Five previous rounds of voting failed to elect a successor of Napolitano because divisions within the PD, the largest party in parliament, led to defeat of two of its own candidates and forced its leader Pier Luigi Bersani to step down.
Napolitano, who had repeatedly ruled out continuing office in the past, said he will outline the "aims" for which he decided to "accept the political forces' appeal" on Monday, when he will be sworn in.
According to media reports, he may not serve a full seven-year term and resign once the impasse is resolved.
Political analysts said the twice president will have to face the hard task of brokering solutions to create a broad coalition able to quickly introduce some necessary reforms to tackle deepening economic crisis.
The new government is expected to comply with suggestions from a 10-member panel of experts that Napolitano appointed last month to help break the stalemate.
Italian president has a mostly ceremonial role but also political powers, a function that Napolitano has often resorted to after he appointed Mario Monti to lead a technocratic cabinet amid a dramatic debt crisis in late 2011.
Italy still has no new government after the Feb. 24-25 national elections produced a hung parliament.
The PD refused to consider an alliance with the PdL led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but also failed to reach out to the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S), which holds the balance of power in the Senate.
Thousands of Italians protested in Rome late on Saturday against Napolitano's re-election after M5S leader, comedian-turned-activist Beppe Grillo, said that the decision to ask him to stand again was a "coup d'etat."
Grillo accused the established parties, which were at the center of rising corruption scandals, of making shady deals behind closed doors. The presidential candidate of his Internet-based movement, jurist Stefano Rodota, was selected through an online vote.
Baby born right after earthquake in SW China
Feedback
RSS
