With his willingness in extremis to reapply for the Quirinale Giorgio Napolitano (88 years old in two months) once again saves the country and deserves 10 with honors. But Silvio Berlusconi also passes the Qurinale test with full marks. while an overwhelming rejection accompanies Pierluigi Bersani and Beppe Grillo. Here are the report cards.
NAPOLITANO: 10 with honors - The President of the Republic once again saves the country by removing it from the shoals of a frightening political and institutional impasse. Without him, politics would have had enormous difficulty in finding a shared President and thanks to him the logic of broad understandings will be affirmed also for the future government, in the knowledge that it is the only mathematically possible one. With his historic re-election, Napolitano once again outclasses his party, the Democratic Party.
BERLUSCONI: vote 8 – He was the most lucid among the protagonists of the battle for the Quirinale. Knowing that he was a minority, he wanted to get out of the corner by offering his votes to elect a shared President who would pave the way for a government of broad understandings. He hit the target by exposing the clamorous divisions of the Democratic Party.
BERSANI: vote 4 - The re-election of Napolitano does not rehabilitate him, rather it certifies his impotence. Bersani got it all wrong, both before and after the elections, both in the battle for the government and in that for the Quirinale. It is right that he leave the scene as soon as possible because the responsibilities for the Pd disaster also in the battle for the Quirinale are mainly his: it is unforgivable to have burned both Marini and Prodi, to have opposed Renzi and to have denied D'Alema the secret ballot vote on Prodi nomination. And then he marvels at the snipers….
GRILLO: vote 4 – Beppe Grillo's first time in the battle for the Quirinale was disappointing. It is one thing to be a leader of the people and another to be in politics. He was holding the Prodi joker which, if played from the start, would have seriously embarrassed the Democratic Party and would have had a real chance of establishing itself. He preferred to stick to a radical chic like Stefano Rodotà who was unable to go beyond the votes of MS5 and Sel. Yesterday he did worse by shouting a coup for Napolitano's re-election: out of his mind.
