President of all the Italians

Seven times out of ten birth pangs have accompanied the delivery of new presidents of the Republics. One hoped that Ciampi would accept a second term not least because of the current state of particular strain created by the harsh tones of the electoral campaign. Ciampi, however, declared his unwillingness, expressing a wish that the two blessed poles into which Italian politics has got itself would come to an agreement. The strategy of the Left was to wait, while Forza Italia scorched Gianni Letta by voting him on its own when he might have been an excellent candidate for an accord. After three null polls, Napolitano managed to get elected, unfortunately without the adherence of the other side. A kind of veto on any former communist blocked agreement. For the record, the person who made known the veto was Bondi, Berlusconi’s spokesman. I do understand that there is a great difference between Premiers and spokesmen, but it was all the more glaring.
Giorgio Napolitano’s curriculum includes long parliamentary experience (currently a life senator), the post of minister of the interior, with estimable work as a “European” – not least in drafting the project of Giscard d’Estaing. Notable also in his curriculum is his visit to the United States, in May 1978, when communists were still being refused visas. The visit enable dhim to explain in various universities and in important political meetings the basic reasons for the agreement in backing the government I then led (in a common struggle against the Red Brigades) and in general the substance of Euro-Communism.
Furthermore one can’t help seeing in Napolitano that type of Neapolitan communist with whom one debated so pacifically: Giorgio Amendola, Mario Palermo, Maurizio Valenzi.
Now he is the President of the Republic: of all the Italians.








Telegram of the holy father
We publish below the telegram of congratulations sent by the Holy Father Benedict XVI to the Honorable Giorgio Napolitano, elected President of the Italian Republic yesterday:

To His Excellency
The Honorable Giorgio Napolitano
President Elect of the Italian Republic

I wish to send you respectful expressions of good wishes on your election as President of the Italian Republic and while I wish that you may fulfil your exalted role with every success I invoke for your person the constant divine assistance for an enlightened and efficacious action of promotion of the common good following the authentic human and Christian values that constitute the wonderful patrimony of the Italian people. With these wishes I send to you and to the entire beloved Italian nation the Apostolic Blessing.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI