The New Italian President

Well today the Italians have a new President....Giorgio Napolitano is a widely respected senator - for - life.

He was elected during the fourth round of voting by the 1,009 electors – members from the two houses of parliament and regional representatives.The Italian Parliament elected this centre-left candidate – an 80-year-old former Communist – as the country’s next president, paving the way for Romano Prodi to form his new government - possibly next week sometime.There was long applause in Parliament after the necessary total of 505 votes was reached at about 1pm local time today.Voting started on Monday, but no candidate won the two-thirds of votes necessary for victory in the first three rounds of balloting. Ex Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative bloc had been reluctant to back Napolitano. Only a simple majority was needed in today’s fourth round of voting.When you see/hear that he was a former communist - he was indeed....but an Italian 'pink' communist as opposed to the conception of the 'old' Soviet style Red Communism! Many cities and towns still have a large number of communists as elected representatives and Bologna's (as one example) city council is run by the Italian Communist Party. The new Leader of the House of Representatives - Bertinotti - was, until last week, the leader of the Italian Reform Communist Reform Party.
But be clear - this does not mean that Italy is now a commmunist state. It is NOT!

posted by Carole B @ 2:58 PM