Premier Matteo Renzi told
lawmakers from his center-left Democratic Party (PD) on Monday
that the "decisive vote" to elect Italy's new president will be
the fourth ballot on "Saturday morning", ANSA sources said.
An assembly of lawmakers from both houses of parliament
plus regional representatives will start voting to elect a new
head of State on Thursday, but Renzi has told the PD to cast
blank papers in the first three ballots, sources said.
The number of votes needed to elect a new head of State
drops to a simple majority of the 1,009 so-called 'grand
electors' in the fourth round, or 505 votes.
Renzi is set to meet the representatives of other parties,
including three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of
the opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, on Tuesday
for talks on Giorgio Napolitano's successor as president.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), however, has
declined Renzi's invitation for talks, with MP Roberto Fico
calling Renzi's invitation "a bluff".
"We are not the ones who pulled back," said Fico. "Renzi is
the one refusing to give out the names...the Democratic Party
(PD) is bluffing".
Fico said the M5S has asked Renzi for a shortlist of
candidates but been rebuffed. The premier has also refused to
talk with the party about presidential possibilities, added
Fico.
The premier said that the PD will propose just one name as
a candidate to be Italy's next president to other parties,
rather than giving a list of names for them to choose from, ANSA
sources said.
The other parties will be given a simple yes-no choice of
whether to back the candidate the PD proposes, Renzi said,
according to the sources.
He also said that this week's vote for a new president was
a chance for the centre-left group to bury the "fiasco" of the
2013 head of State elections, when two candidates put forward by
former PD leader Pier Luigi Bersani were sunk by internal
dissenters.
In the case of the second candidate, two-time premier
Romano Prodi, an estimated 101 PD members voted against during
the secret ballot, forcing Bersani and the leaders of other
parties to beg Napolitano to embark on a second term as
president.
Napolitano reluctantly did so to avoid a crisis, becoming
the first Italian president to be re-elected, but the
89-year-old stressed this was a temporary situation. He resigned
earlier this month.
"The 2013 fiasco is on everyone's CV," Renzi said. "Today
we have the opportunity to make up for it...I'm not betting on
your loyalty, but on your intelligence".
While calling for unity, however, Renzi also said he
defended "the right to dissent".
He stressed that past presidents such as Carlo Azeglio
Ciampi and Francesco Cossiga were elected despite "snipers",
numbering 180 and 170 respectively, who used the secret vote to
buck the party line.
The premier also said that it was an "anomaly" that Italy
has never had a woman president. Stefano Fassina, a senior
member of a minority of PD members who are harshly critical of
Renzi's leadership, said Monday that he agreed that the party
should seek a united line on the candidate to be next president.
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