It's time to say goodbye at the Quirinale: to the cuirassiers and staff, the last gestures before the resignation of President Giorgio Napolitano who will arrive tomorrow. Today in Strasbourg, the prime minister Matteo Renzi closes the Italian European semester and after the resignation announced by Napolitano, the 15 days will kick off during which the president of the Senate Pietro Grasso will assume the pro tempore functions and the president of the Chamber Laura Boldrini will convene the parliament in common seducta for the election of the new president. Voting will therefore presumably begin on 29 or 30 January.
Very simple and without official speeches, the farewell ceremony will start in 24m hours. What the president wanted to say he already said on New Year's Eve when he greeted the Italians and said that he had experienced first-hand the weight of age and the growing difficulties in carrying out his duties as president of the republic. "Ignoring them would be absurd." And, again in his speech, he invoked unity, collaboration and a "sense of responsibility" to elect his successor but also to complete the path of reforms on which, he recalled, Italy has made enormous progress but which still have to be fully completed.
