Lawmakers Pick Elder Statesman From the Left as Italian President

Ending days of secret balloting and back-room dealing, the Italian Parliament on Wednesday elected an 80-year-old former Communist as president of the nation, the final step before a new government can be seated.

It is the first time a Communist has been chosen for the post that is largely ceremonial yet also crucial in bringing together bitterly divided Italian political factions.

The earliest and most important act that President-elect Giorgio Napolitano will perform as head of state is to invite center-left leader Romano Prodi to form a government. Prodi and his coalition narrowly won April 9-10 elections but under Italy’s parliamentary system cannot govern until the president asks them to do so.

Prodi defeated outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the center-right alliance that had ruled for the last five years.

Berlusconi refused for weeks to accept defeat and has pledged to fight Prodi every step of the way. As evidence of that, it took two days and three rounds of voting before Napolitano could gain the number of votes necessary to prevail as president. He was Prodi’s candidate and was opposed by Berlusconi.

“We tried to stop this because it was clear ... that this is not what the nation wanted,” Berlusconi said in offering tepid congratulations to Napolitano. He complained that the highest offices in the land were being “occupied by the left” but said he hoped that Napolitano would be “impartial.”

Prodi was relieved and labeled Napolitano’s election the “historic” selection of a man who is balanced, fair and sensible.

“I hoped to reach [victory] with consensus of the right,” Prodi said, “but unfortunately the political circumstances and such strong electoral tension ... have prevented agreement.”

Under the rules for choosing the president, after three rounds of voting the requirement for a two-thirds majority is relaxed to that of an absolute majority, meaning more than half of all members, present or not. Napolitano won 543 votes, 38 more than necessary but not a landslide given the total electorate of 1,009. Prodi earlier dropped his preferred but more divisive candidate, Massimo D’Alema, head of the largest leftist party in his coalition.

The seven-year presidential post has several key powers, including the authority to dissolve Parliament and throw back to lawmakers any legislation the president considers unconstitutional or ill-advised. Moreover, the president is seen as the figure who rises above the fray and calms fevered political divisions.

Napolitano, who, as his name suggests, was born in Naples, succeeds the popular Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 85, who declined to run for reelection. Napolitano is one of Italy’s seven “senators for life,” an honorary role given respected elder statesmen or other dignitaries.

He long served as a prominent member of the Italian Communist Party, which for decades was Europe’s largest communist grouping until its demise after the fall of the Soviet Union. Napolitano then joined its various subsequent incarnations, and today is a member of the latest of those, the Democrats of the Left.

Historian Paul Ginsborg, who specializes in modern Italy, describes Napolitano as a politician always associated with the more conservative wing of the old Communist Party, and he is seen now as a pragmatic moderate who wins praise even from politicians to his right. He has advocated friendly ties to Washington and the rest of Europe.

Napolitano’s reputation is that of a diplomat, poet and gentleman. He is also said to bear a striking resemblance to Italy’s last king, Umberto II of Savoy, earning him the nickname “the Prince” -- “the Red Prince,” as one Italian newspaper put it.