ROME — Amid growing political chaos, Italian lawmakers on Saturday were poised to elect President Giorgio Napolitano for a second term, turning to the 87-year-old statesman as the last best hope to break a profound deadlock in the euro zone’s third-largest economy.
The move raised the hope that, once re-elected, Mr. Napolitano could preside over the creation of a grand coalition between left and right after inconclusive national elections in February split Parliament into three intractable factions and failed to yield a government. But the prospect of Mr. Napolitano’s staying infuriated the anti-establishment Five Star Movement of Beppe Grillo, which won a quarter of the recent parliamentary vote.
Mr. Napolitano’s seven-year term is up in May, and a new president must be chosen with a simple majority of the same divided Parliament. Lawmakers on Saturday implored Mr. Napolitano to stand for president after failing to cohere around a candidate acceptable to a majority of Parliament in two days of voting, and after the implosion on Friday of the center-left Democratic Party.
“I cannot dismiss my responsibility toward the nation,” Mr. Napolitano said in a statement on Saturday after agreeing to become the first second-term president in Italy’s 67-year old republic. But he added that he expected that the political parties that had called on him would show “a corresponding sense of responsibility.”
Although a testament to the respect he commands among all parties, Mr. Napolitano’s candidacy was a controversial solution that underscored the profound difficulties Italy’s established parties face in adapting to new economic and social realities.
His candidacy “is not a sign of health of the Italian political system, even if the effect could be positive,” said Antonio Polito, a political commentator. “Our system is no longer able to produce a stable government. The parliamentary system is broken and it has not been able to fix itself.”
Mr. Napolitano said in his statement that a possible government had not been discussed, but political analysts said the future government would probably include a coalition with broad-based support. Such a government would most likely exist as long as it takes to push through urgent economic measures and some critical reforms, including a new electoral law.
Once re-elected, Mr. Napolitano could also dissolve Parliament and call new elections, which under Italian law presidents cannot do in the last six months of their terms.
In November 2011, Mr. Napolitano helped orchestrate the rise to power of the current caretaker prime minister, Mario Monti, after former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stepped down during a period of intense market turmoil. Mr. Monti’s yearlong technocratic government ended in December when Mr. Berlusconi’s party withdrew support, and national elections were held in February.
The Democratic Party won a majority in the Lower House but not in the Senate, and its leader, Pier Luigi Bersani, had rejected Mr. Berlusconi’s proposal for a grand coalition.
But in a dramatic defeat, Mr. Bersani stepped down late Friday evening after rebels broke ranks and voted against the two presidential candidates proposed by the Democratic Party leadership in the first rounds of voting. His resignation may lead to new leadership that might be more open to sharing power with Mr. Berlusconi’s party, a prospect that has split the left.
The final straw came Friday, after Romano Prodi, one of the founders of the Democratic Party in its post-communist incarnation, fell 100 votes short among members of his own party, revealing deep internal divisions. The president of the Democratic Party, Rosy Bindi, also stepped down.
Some analysts also believe that the issue of immunity for Mr. Berlusconi, who is facing trials on accusations of corruption and paying for sex with a minor, was also a factor that led to the split within the left. A president has the power to make Mr. Berlusconi a senator for life, allowing him to keep parliamentary immunity.
“He wants immunity in his trials, and he wants to preserve his television monopoly,” said Paolo Flores d’Arcais, the editor in chief of the left-wing journal MicroMega, and a fierce Berlusconi critic.
The Democratic Party backed as its first choice a former labor union leader who had the support of Mr. Berlusconi, a decision that prompted significant disapproval among its electorate, as it was perceived as a first step toward an accord with the center-right.
The Five Star Movement refused to ally with the Democratic Party or to back its candidates for president. It did not vote for Mr. Napolitano Saturday, preferring to back the jurist Stefano Rodotà , a former leader of the center-left, which nonetheless did not back him.
“The left is ready for anything, even to lose a million of votes, to not vote Rodotà,” Mr. Flores d’Arcais said. “They have become part of the conservative establishment of the country, so that for them it’s better to find an accord with Berlusconi,” he added.
Polls show that if elections were held tomorrow, Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition would receive the most votes, although Parliament would remain split into three blocs.
Writing on his popular blog, Mr. Grillo, the leader of the Five Star Movement, called the renomination of Mr. Napolitano “a coup d’état” and said he would march on Parliament on Saturday evening, calling on his grass-roots followers to do the same.
Policy experts said that even with the profound political crisis, Italy had largely escaped greater market turmoil because of the decision by the European Central Bank last summer to create a mechanism to pump liquidity into the market and stabilize the euro.
Still, the political turmoil is preventing leaders from taking steps to right the economy, which is struggling to emerge from the longest recession since World War II. Unemployment is above 11 percent, and the national debt has risen to 130 percent of gross domestic product, the second-highest in the euro zone after Greece.
Earlier this month, Parliament voted to issue more debt to pay 40 million euros that the state owes private businesses, a growing number of which face bankruptcy. Since January, 4,468 Italian companies have gone out of business and 79 have defaulted, the commentator Guido Gentili wrote on Saturday in the economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore.
“The way the political system has behaved over the last few weeks showed that the idea the country is on a bad equilibrium hasn’t really sunk in,” said Federico Fubini, an economics commentator at Corriere della Sera. “They say they understand, but they don’t really understand.”
Elisabetta Povoledo reported from Rome and Rachel Donadio from Athens.
The move raised the hope that, once re-elected, Mr. Napolitano could preside over the creation of a grand coalition between left and right after inconclusive national elections in February split Parliament into three intractable factions and failed to yield a government. But the prospect of Mr. Napolitano’s staying infuriated the anti-establishment Five Star Movement of Beppe Grillo, which won a quarter of the recent parliamentary vote.
Mr. Napolitano’s seven-year term is up in May, and a new president must be chosen with a simple majority of the same divided Parliament. Lawmakers on Saturday implored Mr. Napolitano to stand for president after failing to cohere around a candidate acceptable to a majority of Parliament in two days of voting, and after the implosion on Friday of the center-left Democratic Party.
“I cannot dismiss my responsibility toward the nation,” Mr. Napolitano said in a statement on Saturday after agreeing to become the first second-term president in Italy’s 67-year old republic. But he added that he expected that the political parties that had called on him would show “a corresponding sense of responsibility.”
Although a testament to the respect he commands among all parties, Mr. Napolitano’s candidacy was a controversial solution that underscored the profound difficulties Italy’s established parties face in adapting to new economic and social realities.
His candidacy “is not a sign of health of the Italian political system, even if the effect could be positive,” said Antonio Polito, a political commentator. “Our system is no longer able to produce a stable government. The parliamentary system is broken and it has not been able to fix itself.”
Mr. Napolitano said in his statement that a possible government had not been discussed, but political analysts said the future government would probably include a coalition with broad-based support. Such a government would most likely exist as long as it takes to push through urgent economic measures and some critical reforms, including a new electoral law.
Once re-elected, Mr. Napolitano could also dissolve Parliament and call new elections, which under Italian law presidents cannot do in the last six months of their terms.
In November 2011, Mr. Napolitano helped orchestrate the rise to power of the current caretaker prime minister, Mario Monti, after former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stepped down during a period of intense market turmoil. Mr. Monti’s yearlong technocratic government ended in December when Mr. Berlusconi’s party withdrew support, and national elections were held in February.
The Democratic Party won a majority in the Lower House but not in the Senate, and its leader, Pier Luigi Bersani, had rejected Mr. Berlusconi’s proposal for a grand coalition.
But in a dramatic defeat, Mr. Bersani stepped down late Friday evening after rebels broke ranks and voted against the two presidential candidates proposed by the Democratic Party leadership in the first rounds of voting. His resignation may lead to new leadership that might be more open to sharing power with Mr. Berlusconi’s party, a prospect that has split the left.
The final straw came Friday, after Romano Prodi, one of the founders of the Democratic Party in its post-communist incarnation, fell 100 votes short among members of his own party, revealing deep internal divisions. The president of the Democratic Party, Rosy Bindi, also stepped down.
Some analysts also believe that the issue of immunity for Mr. Berlusconi, who is facing trials on accusations of corruption and paying for sex with a minor, was also a factor that led to the split within the left. A president has the power to make Mr. Berlusconi a senator for life, allowing him to keep parliamentary immunity.
“He wants immunity in his trials, and he wants to preserve his television monopoly,” said Paolo Flores d’Arcais, the editor in chief of the left-wing journal MicroMega, and a fierce Berlusconi critic.
The Democratic Party backed as its first choice a former labor union leader who had the support of Mr. Berlusconi, a decision that prompted significant disapproval among its electorate, as it was perceived as a first step toward an accord with the center-right.
The Five Star Movement refused to ally with the Democratic Party or to back its candidates for president. It did not vote for Mr. Napolitano Saturday, preferring to back the jurist Stefano Rodotà , a former leader of the center-left, which nonetheless did not back him.
“The left is ready for anything, even to lose a million of votes, to not vote Rodotà,” Mr. Flores d’Arcais said. “They have become part of the conservative establishment of the country, so that for them it’s better to find an accord with Berlusconi,” he added.
Polls show that if elections were held tomorrow, Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition would receive the most votes, although Parliament would remain split into three blocs.
Writing on his popular blog, Mr. Grillo, the leader of the Five Star Movement, called the renomination of Mr. Napolitano “a coup d’état” and said he would march on Parliament on Saturday evening, calling on his grass-roots followers to do the same.
Policy experts said that even with the profound political crisis, Italy had largely escaped greater market turmoil because of the decision by the European Central Bank last summer to create a mechanism to pump liquidity into the market and stabilize the euro.
Still, the political turmoil is preventing leaders from taking steps to right the economy, which is struggling to emerge from the longest recession since World War II. Unemployment is above 11 percent, and the national debt has risen to 130 percent of gross domestic product, the second-highest in the euro zone after Greece.
Earlier this month, Parliament voted to issue more debt to pay 40 million euros that the state owes private businesses, a growing number of which face bankruptcy. Since January, 4,468 Italian companies have gone out of business and 79 have defaulted, the commentator Guido Gentili wrote on Saturday in the economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore.
“The way the political system has behaved over the last few weeks showed that the idea the country is on a bad equilibrium hasn’t really sunk in,” said Federico Fubini, an economics commentator at Corriere della Sera. “They say they understand, but they don’t really understand.”
Elisabetta Povoledo reported from Rome and Rachel Donadio from Athens.