MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Italy’s political stalemate extends to the election of a new president

In two votes Bersani's candidate Franco Marini fell far short of the required majority

Italy's parliament failed to elect a new state president in the first two votes on Thursday with a centre-left rebellion against leader Pier Luigi Bersani torpedoing his official candidate and prolonging a political stalemate.

Until the new president is elected, the current paralysis to form a government since February's inconclusive general election will continue, and a chaotic day of voting showed how fractured the political landscape remains.

Italy's economy, the Euro zone's third largest, has contracted for six straight quarters and the political disarray has compounded uncertainty in the country.

Bersani's candidate Franco Marini, a former Senate speaker, fell far short of the required two-thirds majority of the 1,007 electors in the first vote. In the second, he won no votes at all, with many members of both centre-left and centre-right blocs casting blank ballots.

Political sources said the casting of blank ballots was intended to protect Marini from further humiliation after a centre-left rebellion against his candidacy made it impossible to win the two-thirds majority of electors from both houses of parliament plus regional representatives.

Marini's failure, in a vote needed to fill a government vacuum since the deadlocked general election in February, was a slap in the face for Bersani.

He badly split his party by nominating Marini in a deal with centre-right boss Silvio Berlusconi. Bersani told reporters he would meet the centre-left electors to decide their next move ahead of a third vote on Friday morning. After that vote, a simple majority is required to elect a new president.

Many rebellious centre-left parliamentarians voted in the secret ballot for academic Stefano Rodota, candidate of the populist 5-Star Movement of former comic Beppe Grillo.

Nichi Vendola, head of Bersani's leftist ally SEL, said nominating Marini was a mistake. “Marini was a candidate who united the centre-right, not the centre-left,” he said.

He said that unless things changed, his 46 representatives would keep voting for Rodota. Marini's failure could wreck Bersani's deal with Berlusconi aimed at helping him form a minority government.