Rome: Sergio Mattarella, a constitional court judge from Sicily hwo is seen as a symbol of Italy’s battle against organized crime, was elected Italy’s new president on Saturday.
The 73-year-old Sicilian, who was backed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s center-left Democratic Party (PD), succeeds the hugely popular Giorgio Napolitano, who is stepping down because of his advanced age.
Mattarella is little known to the public but is widely respected in politics after a 25-year parliamentary career and several stints as minister in governments of the left and right.
Renowned for his integrity, he entered politics after his elder brother was murdered by the Sicilian Mafia.
Mattarella won 665 votes in the fourth round of voting by a 1,009-member electoral college, composed of members of the two houses of parliament — the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies — and 58 representatives of the regions.
Ferdinando Imposimato, the candidate of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement of Beppe Grillo, won 127 votes.
The threshold for victory at the fourth round fell to a simple majority, down from the two-thirds majority needed for a win in the three opening stages.
As the ruling party’s candidate Mattarella had support from most of the 415 PD politicians in the electoral college as well as several allied lawmakers.
But Italian presidential elections are nothing if not unpredictable, meaning the vote was not devoid of suspense.
In 2013, Romano Prodi was the favorite to succeed Napolitano, but a revolt within the PD scuppered his chances and blocked a decision, forcing Napolitano to agree to start a second mandate which he always insisted he would not finish.
Now 89, Napolitano announced earlier this month that he was too tired to carry on in what is a largely ceremonial role but can become politically significant during times of crisis over the formation of new governments.
Renzi’s backing for Mattarella has been interpreted as the end of a temporary alliance the premier forged with disgraced former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to help drive labor market and electoral reforms through parliament.
Mattarella is seen as an “anti-Berlusconi” figure, having severed his ties with the center right in Italian politics partly because of his distaste for the media tycoon, who still heads the opposition Forza Italia party despite a tax fraud conviction.
Berlusconi was reported Friday to be feeling “betrayed” by Renzi. A popular theory is that the Forza Italia leader was hoping for a sympathetic figure to be installed as president to increase his chances of winning a pardon over his criminal conviction which would allow him to return to parliament.
Sicilian judge Sergio Mattarella elected Italian president
Sicilian judge Sergio Mattarella elected Italian president
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
