The Italian Parliament yesterday re-elected President Giorgio Napolitano to serve a second term in an attempt to resolve the political stalemate following February’s inconclusive election.

Napolitano was overwhelmingly elected by the 1,007 parliamentarians and regional representatives in a sixth round of voting after they had failed to find a mutually acceptable candidate in the previous attempts.

As most of Parliament cheered his re-election, a group of around 500 demonstrators protested outside, with a much larger rally planned later in the day.

In normal circumstances the presidency is a largely ceremonial position, but at times of political instability the President plays a crucial role in forming a government and has the power to dissolve Parliament.

At 87, Napolitano is one of the world’s oldest heads of state and the fact that most of the main political forces virtually begged him to continue despite his numerous previous refusals shows the depth of the current impasse.

In almost two months since the election, Napolitano has failed to broker a solution to the gridlock and is expected to push for a broad coalition government. This possibility has so far been rejected by the centre-left, which won most seats at the election and refused to join forces with Berlusconi’s centre-right.

“I feel obliged to offer my availability as requested,” the 87-year-old Napolitano said in a statement. “I cannot shun my responsibility towards the nation.”

Napolitano had ruled out continuing in office on several occasions, citing his advanced age and the fact that no President has ever before served two terms. But he said he had changed his mind in response to appeals by coalition leaders who saw his candidacy as the only way to break the deadlock in Parliament.

He added that he trusted that his decision would be met with “a corresponding sense of responsibility” on the part of the parties who will need to back him in the sixth round of voting by secret ballot later yesterday.

With the apparent support of the main centre-left and centre-right blocs it would have been a huge surprise if Napolitano did not win the votes required for election.

He was formally elected for a full seven-year term but most commentators believe that once the political crisis is resolved, he will probably resign within a year.

Earlier in the day centre-left and centre-right leaders Pier Luigi Bersani and Silvio Berlusconi and caretaker Prime Minister Mario Monti who heads a centrist group, all went to Napolitano’s palace to ask him to carry on.

Napolitano, whose term ends on May 15, already failed to broker a solution to the political deadlock that has dragged on since an inconclusive February election.

However, once re-elected he will have the power to dissolve Parliament, which he did not have in the final months of his current term.

In the fifth vote of the 1,007 parliamentarians and regional representatives, most of the electors cast blank ballots after the parties failed to agree on a mutually acceptable candidate.

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