Italy: Napolitano pressures MPs to rebuild country

ITALIAN president Giorgio Napolitano, sworn last night for an unprecedented second term at the age of 87, chastised MPs for their inadequate response to the country’s economic crisis and urged them to form a new government “without delay”.

While growing emotional over “the trust and affection I have seen grow toward me and the institution I represent,” Mr Napolitano also was stern in his rebuke of MPs for having failed to reform the country’s flawed election laws and for falling into political paralysis.

Mr Napolitano said politicians would be held accountable if they did not forge alliances and policies to pull the eurozone’s third-largest economy out of recession and put it back on the path to growth.

He said: “If I find myself again facing the deafness of those with whom I have clashed in the past, I will not hesitate to hold them accountable before the country.”

The strong remarks reflected his enhanced standing now that he has acceded to MPs’ wishes for a second term after they failed to back a new figure for president. Mr Napolitano, facing a seven-year term, said he would serve “until the situation in the country … requires, and as long as forces allow”.

Stefano Folli, a political analyst at the il Sole 24 Ore business daily said the remarks had a “clarity and hardness without precedent”.

Among his constitutional powers, the president can dissolve Parliament and choose a premier-designate to form a new government.

Mr Napolitano made clear he wanted to see a new government formed as quickly as possible. Consultations are to start again today.