Italy’s new president. Left forward

Date: 13/05/06

How a former communist found himself becoming a president

GIORGIO NAPOLITANO, who was elected to the Italian presidency on May 10th, will be an imposing, if somewhat austere head of state. But, his personal qualities apart, there are two reasons to welcome, and two reasons to regret, his elevation. Most importantly, it promises to end the uncertainty created by last month's general election, in which the centre-right secured more popular votes in Italy but the centre-left more parliamentary seats. Mr Napolitano is expected next week to ask the centre-left leader, Romano Prodi, to form a new government that could be in place by the end of the month.

The second reason for welcoming Mr Napolitano is that he represents another step towards the integration of former communists, who were excluded from office during the cold war. Latterly, Mr Napolitano was a moderate communist; indeed, with his courtly manner, he was a rather unlikely one. But he was a leading figure in the old Italian Communist Party until its dissolution in 1991.

By then, he was already of an age when most people retire. He is now 80 and will be 87 by the end of his term. That is one cause for regret: his election consolidates the gerontocracy running Italy and stifling the intake of sorely needed new ideas. Mr Prodi's appointment as prime minister will mean that the top four jobs in Italian public life have gone to men with an average tally of 71 birthdays.

The second cause for regret, at a time when Italy is divided into two mutually distrustful camps, is that Mr Napolitano was the choice of just one. The centre-left leadership felt its presidential candidate had to come from the Democrats of the Left (DS), the successors of the Italian Communist Party. This was because the DS, the biggest party in the centre-left alliance, failed to win either of the speakerships of the parliamentary chambers. Having just fought a "reds under the bed" election campaign, the centre-right's leader, Silvio Berlusconi, felt he would lose credibility if he backed a former communist as president. The resulting deadlock lasted for three rounds of balloting and was broken only on the fourth, when the rules allowed Mr Napolitano to be chosen by a simple majority.

The new president will no doubt try to rise above party politics. But his decisions will inevitably be vulnerable to claims of partisanship. And his election will do nothing to deter Mr Berlusconi from arguing that a "bogus majority" is taking power and that he and his allies are justified in resorting to extra-parliamentary methods to combat it. Twice this week, Mr Berlusconi has threatened to promote a tax strike if the centre-left acts in a way he considers damaging for the country. That is perilous talk--and nowhere more so than in Italy.