The second round of presidential elections began in Italy

In Italy, deputies of both chambers of parliament and regional representatives began the second round of voting on the presidential election of the country. It is expected that this round of the elections will be unsuccessful, since the coalitions led by Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi did not come to a compromise about the candidate and promised to lower incomplete ballots into the urns for voting.

On Monday, last Monday, Silvio Berlusconi's supporters voted for their candidate Gianni Letta, who scored 369 votes, and supporters Romano Prodi threw 438 incomplete ballots into the urn.

In order to be elected after the first, second or third round, the candidate must receive at least two -thirds of the vote, that is, 674 (both chambers of the parliament, plus representatives of the regions, are only 1 thousand 10 people, take part in the election of the president). Starting from the fourth round there is enough simple majority of votes, that is, 506.

The Soyuz Bloc, which has a 541 voice, could, starting from the fourth round, choose his own candidate without coordination with opponents, but in conditions when supporters of Prodi prevailed in parliamentary elections with an extremely insignificant advantage and the country was actually split in half, politicians are trying to find such a candidate who would organize both sides, RIA Novosti reports.

During preliminary consultations with representatives of Bloc Berlusconi, the candidacy of Georgio Napolitano, a lifelong senator, twice elected a deputy of the European Parliament, who once headed the lower house of the Italian parliament and became the Minister of Internal Affairs in the first government of Prodi, was nominated.

The heads of the National Alliance parties and the Union of Christian Democrats, which are part of the Berlusconi Bloc, are inclined to support this candidacy, but Umberto Bossy, the head of another party of the Bloc - the League of the North, is categorically against Napolitano and threatens the split of the block if Berlusconi decides to act contrary to his opinion.

As reported sources from the encirclement of Berlusconi, his party "Forward, Italy!" In the second round, it may lower empty ballots into the urn. Prodi announced on Tuesday morning that empty ballots intend to again throw him into the urn and his supporters.

Napolitano himself said that, as it seems to him, progress in negotiations takes place. “It seems to me that there is a discussion now, and I can only hope that it will end in a positive way,” he said in response to journalists' questions regarding the possible outcome of today's voting.

Some analysts suggest that if Berlusconi does not dare to support Napolitano, the Union Bloc may return to another candidate - the ex -Prime Minister and the head of the Left Democrats of the Massimo D'Alama.