Sergio Mattarella is Reelected Italian President; National Unity Government Remains

The Italian grand electors, made up of Members of Parliament and Regional representatives, have reelected Sergio Mattarella as President of the Republic today, after all the parties in the national unity coalition government came to an agreement. Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who leads a partly technocratic and partly grand coalition executive, together with parliamentary leaders, had asked the Head of State, who was first elected in 2015 (See my post from January 2015, William Cinfici: Sergio Mattarella Is Elected Italian President), to remain, despite the octogenarian Mattarella’s expression of belief that Presidents should only serve one seven-year term. However, the previous President became the first to be re-elected and served two additional years. The popular Mattarella, who is Sicilian and the son of a government official slain by the Mafia, is expected to serve until the end of the parliamentary term in two years, whereupon Draghi could be elected his successor. The usually politically fractious Italy has been enjoying since last year an extraordinary period of stability under its current executive, as it recovers from the Coronavirus 2019 Pandemic and continues to make critical reforms. The Italian economy has been prospering as there has been a high rate of vaccination and Draghi secured massive funding from the European Union for pandemic recovery, then reached an agreement with the parties on how to spend the funds. He also approved reforms to speed up the process for criminal cases, without sacrificing justice. An opposition right-wing party, the only major party not in government, opposed Mattarella’s reelection, but their bloc allies, the center-right Forza Italia of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the anti-migrant party supported the move in order to remain in government and keep the momentum for Italy.