Italy stalemate ends as Mattarella re-elected president

Italy’s parliament on Saturday voted for President Sergio Mattarella to serve a second term, putting an end to a six-day stalemate that threatened the survival of the country’s government.

Mattarella, who needed at least 505 votes, received 759 out of 983 ballots cast in the lower house of parliament, with the far-right Brothers of Italy the sole party officially opposing him. Lawmakers broke into applause as the result was read out.

The 80-year-old, whose term was due to end on Feb. 3, had repeatedly said he did not want a second go at the seven-year presidency, but parties within Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s grand coalition turned to Mattarella after multiple failed attempts to find a successor.

In a short acceptance speech, he said Italy’s present challenges meant that “we cannot shirk the duties to which we are called, and of course they must prevail over other considerations and over different personal plans.”

Draghi hailed his re-election as “splendid news for Italians.”

Mattarella, a former Christian democrat minister and constitutional court judge who went into politics after his brother was slain by the Sicilian mafia in 1980, is the second president in a row, after Giorgio Napolitano, to serve a second term.