Parliament has picked a new president. The hope is it can now get on with passing reforms

IT TOOK Italian lawmakers and regional representatives three days, but they managed to elect a new president on January 31st. Sergio Mattarella (pictured), a 73-year-old Sicilian judge, failed to secure the necessary two-thirds majority in the first three rounds of voting, but the fourth round requires only a simple majority. Mr Mattarella garnered 665 votes out of a possible 1,009, and will be sworn in on February 3rd. He replaces Giorgio Napolitano, who resigned two weeks ago at 89, having agreed in 2013 to serve a second presidential term because parliament could not agree on his successor. In comparison with that fiasco, these elections have been speedy and smooth.

The outcome is a political coup for Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, who urged his fractured centre-left Democratic Party to unite around Mr Mattarella in the fourth round. Mr Mattarella, an observant Catholic, was also backed by the Church, the opposition Left, Ecology and Freedom party, and Angelino Alfano, Italy’s interior minister and head of the New Centre Right party. But Silvio Berlusconi, the media mogul and former prime minister who is currently doing community service for tax fraud, opposed the nomination. He called on his Forza Italia, the main right-wing party, to cast blank ballots.

The question now is what will become of the pact forged early last year between Messrs Berlusconi and Renzi in order to pass a new electoral law and reform the Senate. Will it remain intact after Mr Renzi imposed his candidate against Mr Berlusconi’s will? Meanwhile, chemistry between Mr Mattarella and the prime minister who secured his appointment should be good, in the short run. But Francesco Galietti of Policy Sonar, a political risk consultancy, warns that differences in the two men’s ideas and approaches could end up causing friction: the president is reserved and rigorous, compared with Mr Renzi’s focus on speed.

Mr Mattarella began his political career in 1980, when his brother, the president of Sicily, was assassinated by the mafia. He was a member of the now-defunct Christian Democrat party, which dominated post-war Italian politics until the 1990s, and he held ministerial posts in several governments. He resigned as education minister in 1990 in protest against the passing of a law which was seen to favour the business interests of Mr Berlusconi. He later did a stint as defence minister, which will serve him well in his new role as head of state.

In a brief statement after the election, Mr Mattarella said his thoughts “go, above all and first of all, to the troubles and the hopes of our citizens”. One hope will be that now that parliament has picked a president, it can get back to the business of passing reforms.

Source--economist.com