After long reflections, the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano seems oriented to give the secretary of the Democratic Party, Pierluigi Bersani, the task of forming the government this afternoon. But it won't be a full mandate and the timing of its verification will be very tight.
In essence, Napolitano, while harboring strong doubts about Bersani's real possibility of gathering a real majority in Parliament, cannot overlook the fact that the Democratic Party is the first party and that the first attempt to form a government belongs to him.
This is why the Head of State will in all probability give the job to Bersani, but will make it conditional on the secretary demonstrating – in a tight time frame: two or three days at the most – that he knows how to find the numbers in Parliament to put together a self-sufficient majority . Operation possible in the Chamber where, by virtue of the Porcellum, the Democratic Party has a large majority, but very problematic in the Senate where the support of Monti will not be enough for the Democratic Party. Probably the secretary of the Pd will try to flush out the grillini and also the League again, but the initiative looks acrobatic unless there are sudden conversions, given the closure of Bersani to Berlusconi and the Pdl.
In any case, if Bersani fails to make it by the first days of next week, Napolitano will look for some other solution - such as a government of purpose entrusted to a third-party personality with strong institutional depth - in order to avoid an immediate return to the elections, which would have the taste of a farce if the Porcellum is not changed first.
It will also be interesting to see how the confrontation within the various political forces will develop: within the M5S in the first place but also within the Democratic Party where hardly everyone would be willing to sacrifice themselves for Bersani even at the risk of a rapid return to the polls. Before the debate gets into full swing, however, we will have to wait for tomorrow's ominous demonstration promoted in Rome by Berlusconi against the judges.
