(STL.News) Italian President Sergio Mattarella has been elected for a second term, with parties asking him to stay on after a week of often fraught voting in Parliament to choose a successor.
Relieved party chiefs thanked 80-year-old Mattarella on Saturday for agreeing to remain, but the failed attempts to replace him during seven rounds of balloting have left deep scars, with potentially dangerous repercussions for political stability.
In the eighth round of voting among more than 1,000 lawmakers and regional delegates in the Chamber of Deputies, loud and prolonged applause broke out when Mattarella passed the 505 votes needed for election.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera News via YouTube