Sergio Mattarella, a constitutional judge appointed by parliament, a man of the best Catholic-democratic tradition, will be elected today in the fourth ballot as the twelfth president of the Republic. He can count on a substantial package of votes (Pd, Sel, Civic choice ex grillini and other centrist formations), which everyone considers not only sniper-proof, but also in progressive growth. Yesterday, late in the evening, after an appeal (actually quite generic and addressed to all the majority and opposition political forces) by Matteo Renzi, Angelino Alfano's New Center-Right with Popular Area also announced its yes to the candidacy fielded by the secretary of the Democratic Party.
At this point there are also those who hypothesize that in the end Berlusconi too could attempt a surprise coup by announcing at the last moment the favorable vote of an increasingly divided Forza Italia with the Fittians demanding the zeroing of the entire managerial group. But Berlusconi's last-minute decision would be more like the delayed explosion of a wet firecracker than a bang.
Yes, because everything has arrived or arrives after the maximum time, that is when Mattarella could already count on a good majority, even net of the votes of Alfano and Berlusconi. Of course, the last-minute go-ahead from Renzi's main government ally avoids at least the paradox of an incumbent Interior Minister who does not vote (and at a certain point it was also assumed that he would not participate in the vote) for the head of state . Whether or not a last-minute reversal of Forza Italia's positions would save what little is left of the overemphasized pact of the Nazarene. Which, however, to complete the institutional reforms could still come in handy.
Renzi emerges victorious from this battle conducted with Craxian determination (the Craxi who brought Pertini to the Quirnale), managing to contain the scope of the pact as much as possible. Moreover, the secretary of the Democratic Party had repeatedly repeated that the agreement with Berlusconi concerned only the electoral and institutional reforms. It is therefore difficult today for the former knight and for his loyalists to cry out for betrayal for a failure to apply to a field (the Quirinale) that one of the contracting parties has always publicly declared extraneous.
Of course, Renzi sought to reach an agreement with everyone for the President of the Republic right up to the end, and therefore also with the centre-right. But the declared starting point was the Democratic Party: the identification of a high-profile candidate who would regroup the Democratic Party. And here, with the name of Mattarella, the secretary immediately convinced the minority of his party: the decisive meeting with Bersani lasted only a quarter of an hour. The time of two yes.
Mattarella's solution is above all balanced: a Catholic with a straight back has been repeatedly mentioned, evoking his resignation as minister of the Andreotti government in 1990 in controversy with the Mammì law considered by the DC left too generous towards Berlusconi's televisions. Many have said that the chosen one is very reminiscent of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Instead, I believe that his figure should be placed among those men of culture of the Catholic left, many of them from the Morotean school, among whom I would mention Elia, Ruffilli, Andreatta and perhaps Scoppola.
I don't know to what extent it can be said to be high-profile, but it is certainly a sober and sometimes self-effacing man who does not go on talk shows. Of course Mattarella is a politician who has done well where he has done. We owe him the electoral reform, perhaps most loved by the Italian bipolarists: the Mattarellum. As defense minister he reformed the military service, which is no longer compulsory. He was Vice President of the Council. In short, he has a respectable curriculum vitae. And, as far as international experience is concerned, he was defense minister during the war in Kosovo.
His election will certainly create (especially for the mistakes of others) some fibrillation in the political framework. However, the government should hold: there is a more cohesive Democratic Party and Alfano has finally done everything to avoid a possible precipitation of relations with Renzi. The electoral law is in the pipeline in the Chamber where the government does not have major problems in numbers, and so for better or worse the Italicum will arrive in port, even surviving the bad moods and threats of Berlusconi.
There could be some more problems with the constitutional law on the Senate, which needs a double reading and a qualified majority. The fact remains that Alfano and Berlusconi should be the least tempted by close elections. In short: the Renzi government should be able to move forward on the path of reforms. Economy and Europe permitting. But that's another story.
