Italian parliamentarians yesterday began casting their votes for a new president after the scandal-plagued former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi abandoned his dream of becoming the next head of state.
More than 1,000 lawmakers and regional delegates would participate in the complex secret ballot, described as being akin to the appointment of a new pope, that could go through several rounds before a successor to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who is due to step down on Thursday next week, is elected.
The winner of the seven-year mandate requires a two-thirds majority within the first three rounds of voting; from the fourth, an absolute majority is sufficient. Only on three occasions in the history of the election has a new president emerged in the first round.
Photo: Reuters
Berlusconi, who served Italy four times as prime minister, failed to garner enough support for his bid and in a heartfelt letter wrote that in the spirit of “national responsibility” he asked his backers to “give up” identifying him as a contender.
On Sunday, he checked into hospital for “routine” checks, his spokesman said, although two sources told Reuters that he had been in hospital since Thursday and there were reports in the Italian media that his family had been worried about his health.
Even though there are no official candidates in Italy’s presidential election, the 85-year-old broke from tradition and campaigned by calling up unaffiliated parliamentarians to tap them for votes, while augmenting his public persona by publishing full-page adverts in national newspapers highlighting personality traits and accomplishments that he said made him the best person for the job.
His renouncement removed an obstacle to negotiations on a mutually agreeable candidate between the political party leaders.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who has been credited with restoring stability in Italian politics, is seen as the frontrunner, even if broad support is not guaranteed over fears his move to the presidential palace could trigger early elections.
The most crucial issue at stake is the Italian government’s adherence to the reforms that need to be enacted to secure installments from the EU’s post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery fund, of which Italy is the biggest beneficiary.
Italy’s president is a largely ceremonial role, albeit with the power to resolve political crises, pick prime ministers, call early elections and approve or scrap laws.
Draghi, 74, has neither confirmed nor denied his interest in becoming president. Other possible contenders for the presidency include Pier Ferdinando Casini, a centrist senator who reportedly has good cross-party relations, Marta Cartabia, the justice minister, and Giuliano Amato, a former prime minister.
Neither the left nor the right hold enough power in parliament to call the shots, so the deadlock will need to be broken. Parliamentarians would vote once a day until a winner emerges.
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant