Italian Elections and Politics 2022 - Our Time to Schlein

[Antonio the Sixth]

Update: Lega sources have denied meeting with Cassese. Meanwhile Letta put a veto on Casellati and Conte put a veto on Casini, and still no one wants Draghi, so we're still nowhere near a solution.

Many rounds of meetings scheduled for tonight and tomorrow morning, so hopefully something comes out of it.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Huh, the third round was definitely more interesting than the previous two. I wonder where all the new votes for Mattarella come from - one would guess PD [also for sure the source of Casini support] but I think there's a strong chance a lot of them were M5S members.

Speaking of which, Grillo had a telephone conversation with Conte to discuss the next moves and it was alleged that he told the new leader to vote for Draghi, something which Grillo immediately denied. It would be too funny if true...

[Antonio the Sixth]

Fourth round went through and still nothing came out of it. This time decided to abstain instead of voting blank for some reason, and the rest scattered around in a bunch of candidates. Pathetic stuff all around. I won't bother listing the tally because who the f**k cares.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Well I will list the tally of round IV then if anyone is interested.

Sergio Mattarella 166
Nino Di Matteo 56
Luigi Manconi 8
Marta Cartabia 6
Mario Draghi 5
Giuliano Amato 4
Pier Ferdinando Casini 3
Maria Teresa Baldini 2
Elisabetta Belloni 2
Pier Luigi Bersani 2
Others 20

Blank 261
Null 5
Present but abstained 441 (+ 28 absentees)

The right as Antonio mentioned decided to just abstain. The former Paolo Maddalena voters moved over to Nino Di Matteo, a Sicilian public prosecutor who has handled various high profile Mafia cases. Mattarella has kept gaining new votes (scooping up those who opted for Casini yesterday, I imagine).
Nothing conclusive is known yet, although in additional to the usual names Belloni (and Cassese) seem to have gained some traction now.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Moving on from today's round, Matteo Salvini was just quoted by reporters expressing a lot of confidence about tomorrow and saying Lega will stop voting blank in the fifth round. Obviously, we can only speculate as to what that actually means and whether the rest of the political spectrum will accept his offer...

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

And now the tally of round V which went on this morning.

Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati 382
Sergio Mattarella 46
Nino Di Matteo 38
Silvio Berlusconi 8
Marta Cartabia 7
Antonio Tajani 7
Pier Ferdinando Casini 6
Mario Draghi 3
Elisabetta Belloni 2
Joseph-César Perrin 2
Others 9

Blank 11
Null 9
Present but abstained 406 (+ 73 absentees)

So this morning it was revealed that Salvini's name was, so trivially that it looped back to being surprising to me at least, Alberti Casellati. All the centre-left and M5S got mad at the unilateral decision and decided to abstain in response. Mattarella kept getting a bunch of votes nonetheless, many of whom are likely to be defectors from the right. The obvious and sizable number of defections was met with animosity, and FdI and Lega seem to be now implicitly accusing Forza Italia of disloyalty.
In any case, from today on we have two rounds of voting per day, so we'll see what happens this evening [sixth round starts at 17 Italian time]. My understanding is that the name of Casellati is considered to have flopped, but I can't tell the immediate alternative.

[Antonio the Sixth]

This is getting absolutely pathetic, and no party leader is coming off well. Salvini is just flailing around pulling new names out of his ass without consulting anyone, Letta is saying no to everything without giving an indication of whom he might actually support, and Conte seems to be randomly scheming to double-cross him for no discernable reason. It shouldn't be so hard for the three to get together and hash it out.

[Antonio the Sixth]

It shouldn't be so hard for the three to get together and hash it out.

...and it looks like this is finally happening. The Big Three have just emerged from a confidential meeting, and will meet again in about an hour. Still no official announcement but rumors that progress is being made.

[parochial boy]

Five days and counting?

Tell me you're Italian politics without telling me you're Italian politics

[Antonio the Sixth]

Apparently what the Big Three decided this evening is that the new president should be a woman. Which... actually narrows things quite a bit, barring an upset. Casellati was initially the strongest candidate as far as women went, but then Salvini tried to force her through, and the failure of that attempt leaves her candidacy dead in the water. That leaves Elisabetta Belloni, a prominent career civil servant with a focus on diplomacy and intelligence agencies. She's apparently well-liked across the board, so she makes a ton of sense as a compromise candidate. But it ain't done till it's done.

[jeron]

Apparently what the Big Three decided this evening is that the new president should be a woman. Which... actually narrows things quite a bit, barring an upset. Casellati was initially the strongest candidate as far as women went, but then Salvini tried to force her through, and the failure of that attempt leaves her candidacy dead in the water. That leaves Elisabetta Belloni, a prominent career civil servant with a focus on diplomacy and intelligence agencies. She's apparently well-liked across the board, so she makes a ton of sense as a compromise candidate. But it ain't done till it's done.

I do wonder where all these Mattarella votes are coming from now...

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Five days and counting?

Tell me you're Italian politics without telling me you're Italian politics

We have had a fair few presidential elections that lasted significantly more than five days, although admittedly the last one was in 1992 so politically speaking eons ago.

[Antonio the Sixth]

So since Belloni became the de-facto nominee the fault lines around her candidacy are starting to emerge. And those fault lines take us all the way back to... 2018. Don't ask me why, but it appears that the main forces that are pushing her are Lega and M5S (along with FdI, Meloni being apparently personally close with Belloni). Meanwhile, Renzi and FI have both come out against her, on the (fairly spurious to me) basis that it would be wrong for someone involved with intelligence agencies to become the head of state. PD has also indicated some doubts about her candidacy (despite Letta having been in the meeting that seemingly led to her naming), though not as explicitly.

So, long story short, we still have no clue what's going on here. If Belloni makes it through, that would seemingly create a rift in the government's majority, which might be a serious problem.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

The tally of round VI was interesting.

Sergio Mattarella 336
Nino Di Matteo 41
Pier Ferdinando Casini 9
Luigi Manconi 8
Marta Cartabia 5
Mario Draghi 5
Elisabetta Belloni 4
Giuliano Amato 3
Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati 2
Others 9

Blank 106
Null 4
Present but abstained 445 (+ 33 absentees)

For this evening, the sides switched again and it's been the centre-right to abstain. On the other side, the centre-left announced officially the intention to vote blank but in practice most of its members went for Mattarella, as a form of signaling.

[FrancoAgo]

the title is wrong the round 7 will be the 29th january

[Estrella]

A Mattarella second term is being talked about again, with support from Salvini of all people.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Jesus F**king Christ

So in a great redo of 2013, all the parties have officially begged Mattarella to stay. He hasn't accepted yet but from the looks of it it sounds like he will.

This is beyond pathetic, and if anyone had any sense of shame they'd all resign and f**k off.

[Former President tack50]

Five days and counting?

Tell me you're Italian politics without telling me you're Italian politics

I said this somewhere else, but even Papal conclaves somehow manage to be more transparent and effective than Italian Presidential elections.

[Antonio the Sixth]

In the meantime round 7 was another flop, with Mattarella crawling up to 387 votes but 400 or so abstentions.

Round 8 should be the one that actually reelects him.

[CumbrianLefty]

Genuine LOL.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Five days and counting?

Tell me you're Italian politics without telling me you're Italian politics

I said this somewhere else, but even Papal conclaves somehow manage to be more transparent and effective than Italian Presidential elections.

I'm sure Italian Presidential elections would work better too if we locked up the electors in the Sistine Chapel until they make a sensible selection.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Just restore the House of Savoy and the Italian kingdom already. Time to realize constitutional monarchy is just better.   

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This is extremely, extremely funny.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I will diligently attach the tally of round VII then.

Sergio Mattarella 387
Carlo Nordio 64
Nino Di Matteo 40
Pier Ferdinando Casini 10
Elisabetta Belloni 8
Luigi Manconi 6
Marta Cartabia 4
Mario Draghi 2
Emilio Scalzo 2
Others 9

Blank 60
Null 4
Present but abstained 380 (+ 33 absentees)

Yes, Fratelli d'Italia voted for Nordio. The absentions seem to come from the rest of the centre-right. All I can add is - lol.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

It would be glorious if Mattarella told the parties he is not available, but alas... They deserve 30 rounds of voting to showcase their incompetence, We deserve 30 rounds of voting for our entertainment, and Mattarella deserves his earned retirement (well he'd become Senator for life after his term ends so not exactly but you get what I mean).