The Italian Parliament asked Sergio Mattarella on Saturday to carry on as president for a second term after failing to find a compromise candidate in a week of often fraught voting in parliament. According to media outlets, the ruling parties will go to the Republican Palace before the poll to meet with President Mattarella and ask him to accept a second term in accordance with the desire of Parliament. Mattarella, 80, has always ruled out remaining in office and made no immediate comment, but with the country's political stability at risk, it looked highly unlikely he would be able to resist the pressure. It is the second time in succession that a president has been asked to renew his seven-year mandate. In 2013, political leaders went cap in hand to the-then head of state, Giorgio Napolitano, after they too failed to find a consensus candidate. Napolitano reluctantly agreed, but stood aside two years later after a new government was installed, opening the way for Mattarella. Friday, Italy's parliament failed at a fifth consecutive ballot to elect a new president of the country, amid the failure of speaker of the Senate, the candidate of the right-wing parties, and the abstention of the left-wing parties. "Italians do not deserve any more days of confusion," said Matteo Salvini, head of the rightist League party, asking Mattarella to "make a sacrifice" for the good of the country. Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who failed to find any backing for his own ambitions for the job, called Mattarella on Saturday and also urged him to stay on, a political source said. If, as expected, Mattarella accepts a second term, he too would almost certainly resign once the political situation allowed it, commentators are speculating. The fruitless efforts to replace him have left deep scars on the parties and their leaders, with the center-right alliance in particular disarray after losing any semblance of unity over the past 24 hours. While both Salvini's League and Forza Italia embraced the prospect of maintaining the status quo, their ally the Brothers of Italy, which has not joined them in the ruling coalition, denounced the behind-the-scenes maneuvering. "Once again, parliament has shown that it is not fit for Italians," said Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni, accusing her allies of "bartering away" the presidency to insure the government remains in place until the legislature ends in 2023. The stakes have been very high. The president is a powerful figure in Italy who gets to appoint prime ministers and is often called on to resolve political crises in the euro zone's third-largest economy, where governments survive around a year on average. Unlike in the United States or France, where heads of state get elected in a popular vote, in Italy, 1,009 parliamentarians and regional representatives chose via a secret ballot that party leaders sometimes struggle to control. — Agencies
