Napolitano quits, plunging Italy into uncertainty

ROME– President Giorgio Napolitano resigned Wednesday, plunging Italy into uncertainty in a major test for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s coalition government.
Napolitano quit ahead of the end of his second term at the Quirinal Palace after telling the nation that at age 89 he was no longer fit enough to serve as head of state. Renzi said that a new president will be elected by February while parliamentary sources said a first vote by the electoral college that chooses the president is expected Jan. 29. Senate President Piero Grasso is now acting head of state until a new president is elected.
A constellation of names of possible new presidents is being discussed in the Italian media ranging from former mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni to former EU Commission President Romano Prodi, who has indicated he could be persuaded to take the job if he has sufficient support from across the spectrum.
While feminists have called for a woman to become the first president, former EU commissioner and former foreign minister Emma Bonino, who was considered the most likely woman candidate, disclosed last week that she is suffering from lung cancer, meaning that she is out of the race.
Italy’s Parliament Wednesday rejected a motion by the opposition M5S and SEL parties calling for a freeze on parliamentary reforms until the new president is elected. Opposition leaders said that government legislation to change the constititution by reforming the electoral system ought not to be promulgated while there is no full-fledged head of state. The motion was rejected by the coalition government’s followers, however.
While the president in Italy theoretically is largely a ceremonial post, Napolitano, a former communist, arguably transformed Italy into a semi monarchical system ruled by ‘King George’ in which he selected Renzi and two previous prime ministers, Mario Monti and Enrico Letta, without any of them being elected.
All three were chosen by Napolitano on grounds of national expediency so as to provide continuity and stability as Italy battled to emerge from a major recession. Renzi, a leader of the former communist Democratic Party, was backed by Napolitano in large part to prevent the radical Five Star Movement M5S from taking office even though it is the party that won the largest number of votes.