Sergio Mattarella, the current president of Italy, has been re-elected for a second term. In the eighth round, he has already won the necessary 505 electoral votes.
According to Reuters, 80-year-old Mattarella did not want to remain in the presidency for a second term, having “other plans for the future.” He was already preparing for a trip to his native Palermo, giving himself time only to follow the process of choosing a successor and arrange a move to a new place of residence in Rome. But fate decreed otherwise. After several rounds of elections that did not bring results, he agreed to run for the post of head of state for a second term. Mario Draghi, the country’s prime minister, asked the incumbent to reconsider his decision and take part in the elections.
The website of the lower house of parliament is broadcasting the vote count, but Sergio Mattarell has already won the 505 votes needed for re-election. He won in the eighth round, after an inconclusive seven. To win the fourth and subsequent rounds, you need to get 50% plus 1 vote. More than a thousand people took part in the voting – representatives of the regions and deputies of both houses of parliament, RBC reports.
Mattarella is the son of the famous politician Bernardo Mattarella, one of the founders of the Christian Democratic Party of Italy. He was engaged in jurisprudence, and came into politics after the murder in 1980 of his younger brother, the former governor of Sicily, by mafia militants. This road led Sergio Mattarella to the Quirinal Palace. Against the background of the pandemic and the decisions being made in the fight against it, the role of the president, which has traditionally been symbolic in the Italian parliamentary system, has increased thanks to Mottarella.
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