2006 Italian presidential election

In accordance with the Italian Constitution, the election was held in the form of a secret ballot, with the Senators, the Deputies and 58 regional representatives entitled to vote. The election was held in the Palazzo Montecitorio, home of the Chamber of Deputies, with the capacity of the building expanded for the purpose. The first three ballots required a two-thirds majority of the 1,009 voters in order to elect a president, or 673 votes. Starting from the fourth ballot, an absolute majority was required for candidates to be elected, or 505 votes. The presidential mandate lasts seven years. The term of the incumbent president, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, was due to end on 18 May 2006 (but eventually ended already on 15 May).

The election was presided over by the President of the Chamber of Deputies Fausto Bertinotti, who proceeded to the public counting of the votes, and by the President of the Senate Franco Marini.

On 2 May 2006 the President of the Chamber of Deputies Fausto Bertinotti, in agreement with President of the Senate Franco Marini, convened the two houses of the Italian Parliament, integrated with a number of representatives appointed by the twenty Italian regions, in a common session on 8 May in order to commence voting for the election of the new President of the Italian Republic.

Outgoing President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 85, was asked to run for another mandate by the centre-right coalition House of Freedoms, with the strong support of the centre-left coalition The Union. However, Ciampi declined to run again, noting that "none of the past nine presidents of the Republic has been re-elected. I think this has become a meaningful rule. It is better not to infringe it".

On 10 May 2006 Giorgio Napolitano, the candidate endorsed by the centre-left coalition, was elected on the fourth ballot with 543 votes. His term officially started with a swearing-in ceremony held on 15 May 2006.

There has been criticism from across the political spectrum about the presidential elections, mostly from the minority right-wing coalition. Since the speakers of both houses of parliament were chosen by the winning coalition, the House of Freedoms demanded an impartial candidate for the role of president. The Union stressed the fact that the Italian Constitution demands that the president be a defender of the constitution, hinting that such a quality was scarce among the opposition members.

Most of the criticism focused on how the president was to be elected. Surprisingly, given the enormous heat and animosity shown in the preceding general elections, the two coalition leaders organized a meeting to try to come up with a candidate that was acceptable to both. The attempts failed quickly, with the Union arguing that the House of Freedom was not interested in any candidate, and the House of Freedom arguing that the Union was not proposing any that were acceptable.

Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the opposition, was the most vocal opponent of any candidate that came from the former Italian Communist Party, in line with the anti-communist stance he had taken in the campaign. His allies, especially the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC), openly disagreed with his intransigence but vowed to stick with their ally's decision. Yet, when Napolitano was elected, Silvio Berlusconi gave an interview to one of his political magazines Panorama saying that the UDC betrayed him by letting 60 of his electors cast a blank vote on the first ballot, instead of supporting the official candidate Gianni Letta. When the UDC argued that this might have spelled the end of the Coalition, Silvio Berlusconi quickly changed his stance by saying, as he often had, that he had been "misunderstood" and that he never gave that journalist an interview.

The candidacy of Massimo D'Alema was supported by his party, the Democrats of the Left, and by other parties of the coalition, such as the Party of Italian Communists, the Communist Refoundation Party and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, but opposed by others, such as the Rose in the Fist, arguing that his candidacy was driven by a particracy's mentality. Also, part of the left-wing coalition considered D'Alema far too willing to conduct backroom deals with the opposition. Some moderate journalists liked D'Alema because his presidency would have given Romano Prodi a stabler government, since the biggest party of the Union had not been rewarded with any institutional position.

In the opposition coalition, while Silvio Berlusconi vehemently opposed a D'Alema presidency, some of his aides, such as Marcello Dell'Utri, and some aligned newspapers, such as Il Foglio, campaigned for D'Alema. However, the official stance of the centre-right was that D'Alema, being an important left-wing politician and having participated in the election campaign, was ill-suited for president, a role that it is supposed to be impartial.

However, when the Union proposed Giorgio Napolitano, a senator for life that in recent years had not had a prominent role in politics, the House of Freedom objected that the Union should have presented a list of names. In the end, the House of Freedom chose to cast a blank vote. Some right-wing newspapers protested the communist background of the new president.

• (in Italian) Official results (from the Italian Parliament website)