Draghi asks Mattarella to stay on, re-election seems likely

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 29 - Premier Mario Draghi on Saturday asked President Sergio Mattarella to rethink his determination to retire and instead stay in place as head of state as a stalemate continued over the Italian presidential vote.
    A majority summit then agreed to call on the president to remain in place. Majority whips will go to the Quirinale Palace to voice their support for the head of State Saturday afternoon.
    The re-election of the 80-year-old president now appears likely in the eighth presidential ballot which starts at half past four with the result expected at around dinner time Saturday evening.
    Draghi reportedly told Mattarella and party leaders it was right for the head of state to remain in place "for the good and stability of the country", sources said.
    The premier and former European Central Bank president urged party leaders to ask Mattarella to reconsider his oft-stated wish to retire, although Draghi also stressed that the decision was in parliament's hands.
    Earlier the majority parties said they would either desert the seventh ballot Saturday afternoon or cast blank votes in the bid to elect Mattarella's successor.
    Mattarella's star is rising as he gains increasing votes amid the deadlock despite having repeatedly insisted he does not want to stay on.
    Several MPs said they would now vote for him after Draghi appeal.
    Rightwing League party leader and former deputy premier and anti-migrant interior minister Matteo Salvini also said "we don't think it is serious to continue with Nos and cross-vetoes and (we should) ask the president to reconsider (his retirement from public life)".
    ""Draghi should stay on as premier and Mattarella should stay at the Quirinale (presidential palace".
    Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader and former premier Enrico Letta also threw the PD's weight behind Mattarella's re-election, albeit perhaps for a shorter term than the statutory seven years, by saying "we should heed the wisdom of the chambers" referring to the high vote for the outgoing president in the sixth ballot, 366 out of a required majority of 505.
    Mattarella got even more, 387 votes, in the seventh ballot Saturday and was widely expected to pass the 505 mark needed to be elected Saturday evening.
    However, he has yet to say whether he might change his mind and accept the honour. Mattarella has already started moving out of the Quirinale Palace and has rented a flat in Rome.
    Mattarella's predecessor Giorgio Napolitano is the only Italian president to have been re-elected, albeit reluctantly, serving another two years before standing down.
    One of Salvini's two partners, Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party, says it is backing former House Speaker Pier Ferdinando Casini in a break with its rightwing allies.
    But Casini also said "parliament must ask Mattarella to stay in place", saying he himself was dropping out of the race.
    Leading PD Senator Andrea Marcucci said "this afternoon we will re-elect a great president".
    Italia Viva (IV) leader Matteo Renzi, another former premier said "the agreement on Mattarella is a great joy".
    Health Minister and leftwing Free and Equal (LeU) party leader Roberto Speranza described the likely re-election as a "very great joy".
    Letta tweeted a photo of Mattarella saying "thank you president".
    The other rightwing party leader, opposition Brothers of Italy (FdI) chief Giorgia Meloni, said she could not believe that Salvini was calling for Mattarella to stay on and said she would be "amazed" if the president agreed to the call.
    Letta, the PD leader, said previously a roster of names had been discussed with formerly populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Conte and Salvini including bookies' favourite Draghi, Mattarella, Justice Minister Marta Cartabia, former justice minister Paola Severino, Belloni, Constitutional Court chief and former premier Giuliano Amato and Casini.
    Neither the centre-left or the centre-right bloc has enough votes on its own to carry the election.
    The centre right abstained in the sixth ballot while the centre left cast blank ballots.
    There were two rounds of voting scheduled on both Saturday and Sunday. In the past it has taken as many as 23 rounds to elect a new president.
    On Friday 75-year-old Senate Speaker Elisabetta Casellati failed in her bid to become Italy's first female president.
    The seventh ballot of the 1,009 grand electors - lawmakers from both houses of parliament and regional representatives - started at 09:30 Saturday and the count ended at about 13:45.
    There will be an eighth ballot Saturday evening, with two more scheduled on Sunday if needed, although that likelihood is scant given the support Mattarella now has.
    A simple majority of the 1,009 electors is needed to elect a new president, so the magic number is 505.
    In the fifth ballot Casellati got 382 votes while 406 grand electors abstained.
    Mattarella, who is coming to the end of his seven-year term and has said he does not want to be re-elected, got 46 votes, down from 166 in Thursday's fourth ballot, in the fifth ballot but that number surged to 366 in Friday night's sixth ballot and to 387 in Saturday's first vote.
    The centre right's decision to vote for Casellati caused tension within the broad coalition supporting Draghi's government.
    Despite polling in the single figures, Draghi had remained the bookies' favourite to get the top institutional post in the eurozone's third-largest economy and his chances are reportedly rising as the stalemate continued.
    But many MPs feared the election of the euro's saviour as ECB chief would lead to them losing their seats in a snap election a year before the natural end of the parliamentary term.
    Many MPs and the domestic and international business community were also worried that the departure of Mr 'Whatever It Takes' might jeopardise key reforms to the justice and tax systems and public administration needed to secure almost 200 billion euros in EU post-COVID recovery funds, helping turn Italy into a more modern, efficient and greener economy.
    The president is a largely ceremonial figure representing national unity and upholding the Constitution as a sort of moral compass for the nation, but the person can wield power in government crises by naming premiers and rejecting ministers, while they may also ask parliament to reconsider legislation.
    (ANSA).