Deadlock over as Italy agrees on speakers for Senate and Chamber

Ex-magistrate Maria Elisabetta Casellati from Forza Italian elected Senate president, M5S candidate Roberto Fico elected president of the Chamber

24 March 2018, 1:41pm

1 min read

Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati and Roberto Fico have been elected to Italy's Senate and Chamber respectively (Source: huffingtonpost.it)

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An impasse on the elections of speakers to the Italian bicameral Parliament was resolved today, with a meeting at Palazzo Grazioli between Forza Italia’s Silvio Berlusconi, Lega Nord’s Matteo Salvini and Fratelli D’Italia’s Giorgia Meloni leading to the election of speakers for the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

Maria Elisabetta Casellati from Forza Italia was elected president of the Senate, while Five Start Movement candidate Roberto Fico was elected president of the Chamber.

Fico was elected with 422 votes, thanks to an agreements between M5S and a united centre-right, and Casellati received 420 votes to be elected after her name was proposed by Berlusconi and supported by M5S. Casellati makes history as the first female president to preside at Palazzo Madama, seat of the Senate.