ITALY: Voting for Italy's next President has begun and is expected to turn into a bruising battle prolonging the acrimonious political climate

Record ID: 872781

  • Title: ITALY: Voting for Italy's next President has begun and is expected to turn into a bruising battle prolonging the acrimonious political climate
  • Date: 9th May 2006
  • Summary: VOTE COUNT INDICATOR VOTING IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 24th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • City:
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAA1OV7W31AOD5PXT63CMSBPG0C
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Voting began on Monday (May 8) for Italy's next President but an inability to agree on a candidate by the centre-right and centre-left meant that the vote could continue for several days.
    A minute's silence was called just before the vote started to mark the deaths of three Italian soldiers killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan last Friday. Immediately afterwards a member of the Radical Party, Marco Pannella, began shouting 'Long live Parliament' from the balcony, he was eventually dragged away despite his best efforts to cling onto the railings.
    Soon afterwards the 1,010 "grand electors", made up of lawmakers and regional representatives, began voting by secret ballot to choose a successor to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, whose 7-year term expires this month.
    Incoming prime minister Romano Prodi, whose coalition won last month's election by a slim margin, will not be able to form his government before the election of the new president, who will formally give him the mandate.
    Prodi on Sunday (May 7) put forward 80-year-old Giorgio Napolitano as a compromise candidate. Outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi turned down Prodi's first proposal, Massimo D'Alema, a former prime minister who is chairman of the Democrats of the Left (DS).
    However his call seemed to fall on deaf ears in outgoing prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's camp, suggesting the election of the president could turn into a bruising battle that would prolong the acrimonious political climate after the most divisive election campaign in decades.
    The Northern League, one of Berlusconi's coalition partners, said the alliance would not support Napolitano who, like D'Alema, is from the DS and is a former communist.
    Many analysts believe no winner will emerge before Wednesday's (May 10) fourth ballot, when the number of votes needed falls from a two-thirds majority of the electors to an absolute majority.
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