The election of the eleventh President of the Italian Republic

In a tense political situation marked by the bitter confrontation between a razor thin center-left electoral and parliamentary majority and an aggressive opposition of the center-tight Casa delle Liberta, the Italian parliament elected life senator Giorgio Napolitano to the Presidency of the Republic. A former prominent leader of the Italian Communist Party, Napolitano was voted in by the center-left on the fourth ballot. This article explains how and why he was selected. First, it recounts briefly the criteria adopted by the center-left to choose the Speakers of the two branches of Parliament. Then, it explores the reasons why the center-left had to stand behind a candidate of its own, initially Massimo D'Alema, and when it was clear that he could not muster all the necessary support front within the center-left, Napolitano, and why the center-right decided not to vote for Napolitano. In conclusion, the article offers some reflections on the role to be played by the President of the Republic in the next seven years and on the proposals of constitutional reforms affecting his position in the overall framework of the Italian parliamentary Republic.