Italy's parliament failed to elect a new state president in the first two votes today, with a centre-left rebellion against leader Pier Luigi Bersani torpedoing his official candidate and prolonging political stalemate.
Until the new president is elected, the paralysis hobbling attempts to form a government since February's inconclusive general election will continue but a chaotic day of voting showed how fractured the political landscape remains.
Bersani's candidate Franco Marini, a former Senate speaker, fell far short of the required two-thirds majority of the 1,007 electors in the first vote and in the second he won no votes at all, with many members of both centre-left and centre-right blocs casting blank ballots.
Political sources said the casting of blank ballots was intended to protect Marini from further humiliation after a centre-left rebellion against his candidacy made it impossible to win the two thirds majority of electors from both houses of parliament plus regional representatives.
Marini's failure, in a vote which is key to filling a government vacuum since the deadlocked general election in February, was a slap in the face for Bersani. He badly split his party by...
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