Mattarella, 80, agrees to serve a second seven-year term after political parties fail to find an acceptable alternative.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella has been elected for a second term, with parties asking him to stay on after a week of often fraught voting in Parliament to choose a successor.
Relieved party chiefs thanked 80-year-old Mattarella on Saturday for agreeing to remain, but the failed attempts to replace him during seven rounds of balloting have left deep scars, with potentially dangerous repercussions for political stability.
In the eighth round of voting among more than 1,000 lawmakers and regional delegates in the Chamber of Deputies, loud and prolonged applause broke out when Mattarella passed the 505 votes needed for election.
He had long ruled out remaining in office, but with the country’s political stability at risk, he changed his mind in the face of appeals from parliamentary leaders who met him at the presidential palace earlier in the day.
The leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), Enrico Letta, who had championed Mattarella’s re-election, spoke to reporters to express his “enormous thanks … for his generous choice towards the country”.
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Al Jazeera’s Nadim Baba said the decision brought some stability to Italian politics and financial markets.
“The prime minister, Mario Draghi, had made it clear that he would like to be Italy’s president.
“That didn’t go down well with the main parties in the Parliament – they wanted him to stay in position at least until the next general election in 2023.
“If he had moved, there would have had to be a snap election, which could create instability. He is also seen as someone who can oversee Italy’s post-pandemic transition,” Baba said.
Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, had previously made it clear he would like to be president [7/Pool via AFP]
It is the second time in succession that a president has been asked to renew his seven-year mandate. In 2013, political leaders went cap in hand to the then head of state, Giorgio Napolitano, after they too failed to find a consensus candidate.
Napolitano reluctantly agreed, but stood aside two years later after a new government was installed, opening the way for Mattarella.
Mattarella could potentially resign once the political situation allows it, commentators have said.
The fruitless efforts to replace him have left deep scars on the parties and their leaders, with the centre-right alliance in particular disarray after losing any semblance of unity over the past 24 hours.
President of the Senate Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, left, and low Chamber President Roberto Fico clap their hands after Sergio Mattarella is re-elected as Italy’s 13th president [Gregorio Borgia/ Pool via AP Photo]
While both Salvini’s League and Forza Italia embraced the prospect of maintaining the status quo, their ally, the Brothers of Italy, which has not joined them in the ruling coalition, denounced the behind-the-scenes manoeuvring.
“Once again, Parliament has shown that it is not fit for Italians,” said Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni, accusing her allies of “bartering away” the presidency to ensure the government remains in place until the legislature ends in 2023.
The stakes have been very high. The president is a powerful figure in Italy who gets to appoint prime ministers and is often called on to resolve political crises in the euro zone’s third-largest economy, where governments survive about a year on average.
Unlike in the United States or France, where heads of state get elected in a popular vote, in Italy, 1,009 parliamentarians and regional representatives choose via a secret ballot that party leaders sometimes struggle to control.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
