Sergio Mattarella is the twelfth president of the Italian Republic. His election came in the early afternoon with 665 votes, 160 more than necessary: after the first three ballots that took place between Thursday and Friday (which required a two-thirds majority of voters), from today the quorum dropped to an absolute majority (505 votes out of 1.009 electors).
The outcome of the fourth vote was widely awaited, since Mattarella could count on the support of Pd, SEL, Civic Choice, ex grillini and other centrist formations, which was also joined yesterday evening by Area Popolare (NCD and UDC) , initially displeased by the unilateral method with which Prime Minister Matteo Renzi advanced the candidacy of the new Head of State.
On the contrary, no second thoughts came from Forza Italia. Silvio Berlusconi's party did not support the Democratic Party candidate, but renounced the symbolic gesture of voting for one's own name, preferring to vote for a blank ballot. The 5 Star Movement instead continued to vote for Ferdinando Imposimato. Also against the Northern League and the Brothers of Italy.
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.
