26, January 2022
Italian MPs fail in third bid to elect president 0
Italian lawmakers failed Wednesday to elect a new president in a third round of voting, as bickering party leaders blamed each other for pushing the country towards a political crisis.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who was the frontrunner for the post ahead of the election, pocketed just five votes as parties panicked at the idea of pulling him from his job.
Political analysts have warned that moving the former European Central Bank head to the presidential palace could deal a fatal blow to an already weak ruling coalition, sparking snap elections.
A fourth round of voting will be held Thursday morning and could lead to a breakthrough, as the threshold for victory now falls from a two-thirds majority to an absolute majority.
Italy’s president is a ceremonial figure but wields great power in crises. Doubts over candidates led some 412 of the 1,000 or so voting MPs, senators and regional representatives to cast blank ballots Wednesday.
Outgoing 80-year old president Sergio Mattarella — who has repeatedly ruled out serving a second term — won the most votes, with 125 ballots.
Names ‘shot down’
Draghi, 74, who was brought in to lead a national unity government a year ago, had been hailed by some as the best candidate for the seven-year presidential post because of his perceived skill in ensuring political stability.
Mario Draghi had been hailed by some as the best candidate for the seven-year presidential post because of his perceived skill in ensuring political stability.
Mario Draghi had been hailed by some as the best candidate for the seven-year presidential post because of his perceived skill in ensuring political stability. Alberto PIZZOLI AFP/File
But most insist he stay as premier to oversee reforms demanded in exchange for funds from the EU’s post-pandemic recovery scheme.
Rome is the biggest beneficiary of the programme, to the tune of almost 200 billion euros ($225 billion).
Draghi hinted last month he is interested in becoming head of state but has since remained silent on the issue.
Marco Travaglio, editor of the Fatto Quotidiano daily, compared him Tuesday to Francesco Schettino, the disgraced captain who was convicted of abandoning ship when the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank off Italy in 2012.
“The parties are asking him to stay (as PM), and he wants to escape,” he said.
‘Still in the race’
Draghi “is still in the race and still has a significant chance” of being elected, Giovanni Orsina, head of the Luiss School of Government in Rome, told AFP.
Former Chamber of Deputies speaker Pier Ferdinando Casini, 66, who got 52 votes Wednesday, had better chances, Orsina said, but warned “things change very quickly”.
Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League party, accused the centre-left of shooting down every single name put forward by the right — which had initially backed billionaire magnate Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi, who formally withdrew from the race on the weekend, won four votes at Wednesday’s ballot.
“I’m trying to negotiate”, but “any name I put forward I get ‘no’ from the opposite side,” Salvini said.
He and others on the right flatly rejected a proposal by the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), Enrico Letta, for a lock-in similar to a papal conclave to force them to find a common candidate.
Letta’s suggestion we “shut ourselves in a room, (with just) bread and water” prompted Salvini Wednesday to quip: “if I lose three kilos it won’t hurt, but we don’t need” a lock-in.
Source: AFP
28, January 2022
US: Biden pledges to nominate Black woman to Supreme Court within weeks 0
President Joe Biden on Thursday said he plans by the end of February to nominate a Black woman to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a historic first that he called “long overdue.”
Biden appeared with Breyer, whom he has known since the 1970s, at the White House after the 83-year-old justice formally announced his retirement in a letter to the president. Breyer wrote that he plans to depart at the conclusion of the court’s current term, typically at the end of June, assuming his successor has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Biden, who won the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination in large part because of strong support from Black voters, noted that he committed during that campaign to name a Black woman to a lifetime post on the high court and would keep his promise.
“Our process is going to be rigorous. I will select a nominee worthy of Justice Breyer’s legacy of excellence and decency,” Biden said, calling the selection of a Supreme Court justice one of a president’s most serious constitutional responsibilities.
“While I’ve been studying candidates’ backgrounds and writings, I’ve made no decision except one: the person I nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity – and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue, in my view,” Biden said.
Potential nominees include Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former Breyer law clerk confirmed by the Senate last June to serve on an influential U.S. appellate court, and Leondra Kruger, who serves on the California Supreme Court. Another potential contender is Michelle Childs, a federal district court judge in South Carolina who Biden already has nominated to the U.S. appeals court in Washington.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden believes that being a sitting judge is not prerequisite for his nominee and that whether a candidate could draw support from Republicans is not an influencing factor.
Biden said he wants the Senate, which his fellow Democrats control by a razor-thin margin, to “move promptly” once he chooses his nominee. Democrats can confirm a nominee without a single Republican vote because Republicans in 2017 changed the Senate rules to no longer require 60 of the 100 senators to allow Supreme Court nominations to move forward.
While Breyer’s retirement after 27 years gives Biden his first chance to fill a vacancy on the nine-member court, it will not change its ideological balance. The court’s 6-3 conservative majority has shown a growing willingness to reshape the law on contentious issues including abortion and gun rights. Biden’s Republican predecessor Donald Trump appointed three justices during his single four-year term in office.
Breyer, the court’s oldest justice, often found himself in dissent on a court that has moved ever rightward. He spoke at the White House of the importance of a diverse nation like the United States resolving its deep divisions by adhering to the rule of law.
“People have come to accept this Constitution and they have come to accept the importance of the rule of law,” Breyer said, holding a copy of the 18th century foundational document in his hand.
White House reaching out to candidates
White House officials expect to begin reaching out to and potentially meeting with candidates as soon as next week, according to a source familiar with the situation. Biden is expected to work with a list of 10 or fewer people.
Senate Democrats aim to quickly confirm Biden’s nominee in a time frame similar to the one-month process that the chamber’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, used in 2020 to approve Trump’s third appointee, Amy Coney Barrett, according to a source familiar with planning.
Republicans are seeking to regain control of the Senate in the Nov. 8 congressional elections, underscoring the need for speed from the perspective of Democrats. McConnell has indicated he would block any Biden nominations to the court if his party regains the Senate majority.
McConnell said in a statement: “The president must not outsource this important decision to the radical left. The American people deserve a nominee with demonstrated reverence for the written text of our laws and our Constitution.”
Trump’s three conservative appointees who McConnell pushed through the Senate came from a shortlist prepared with the input of outside conservative legal activists associated with the Federalist Society.
Biden said he was expressing the nation’s gratitude to Breyer for his “remarkable career in public service” and noted past rulings the justice authored upholding abortion rights, voting rights, environmental measures and religious liberty.
“This is a bittersweet day for me,” Biden said. “I think he’s a model public servant in a time of great division in this country.”
Source: REUTERS