Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has advocated this Friday for the implementation of a presidential system in Italy and has done so stating that, if this right-wing proposal prospers, the current head of state, Sergio Mattarella, should resign.
Berlusconi has argued that this initiative is not new and dates back to 1995. It consists, in his words, in “the people choosing directly who they want to govern them”, after a concatenation of crises in the parliamentary and executive spheres.
In fact, the leader of Forza Italia was the last prime minister to be elected to the post after running for election as head of a party list, something that he himself recalled in an interview on Radio Capital.
The conversion of Italy into a presidential republic is part of the battery of proposals from the conservative bloc, which is the favorite in the September elections. Berlusconi is clear that, if the reform prospers, “Mattarella should resign” so that a new head of state with more powers could be elected, according to ‘Il Corriere della Sera’.
Berlusconi himself tried in vain to be president of Italy at the end of his first term, but the lack of consensus between the different parties and the fragility of the government of Mario Draghi, now in office, led Mattarella to prolong a stage that he considered finished.
The leader of the Democratic Party (PD), Enrico Letta, has disgraced Berlusconi that after “making Draghi fall” he now “attacks” Mattarella by speculating on his hypothetical resignation. According to Letta, who wants to form a center-left alliance, the right is “dangerous for the country.”
