Stalled voting stymied the President’s hopes of retirement.

Italy has spent the last week preparing to elect a new President. Its current President, Sergio Mattarella, age 80, has made no secret that he would very much like to retire from the position, which he has been in for the last seven years. Mattarella was already in the process of preparing to cede his position, moving his belongings out of the Presidential palace and renting an apartment in Rome. Unfortunately, it seems circumstances have delayed his retirement.

At 80, Italy president Sergio Mattarella set to stay on amid successor row

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— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 29, 2022

The vote to elect a new President had been deadlocked for nearly a week, with 1,009 Italian lawmakers and regional representatives unable to come to a consensus vote. To stop the cycle from repeating any further, Prime Minister Mario Draghi convinced Mattarella to stay on for another term.

“The difficult days we have gone through for this election of the President of the Republic, in the middle of the grave emergency that we are still going through, in terms of health, in terms of the economy, and in terms of society, call for a sense of responsibility and respect for the decision made by the parliament,” Mattarella said on Saturday after his reelection was announced.

Italy's ruling parties say they have asked Sergio Mattarella to remain president after a chaotic week of voting where parties failed to agree on a new candidate https://t.co/Oa8EKVTjfH

— CNN International (@cnni) January 29, 2022

“These conditions require that one doesn’t step away from the duties to which one is called upon. And naturally these must have prevalence over other considerations and other personal prospects with the commitment to interpret the expectations and the hopes of our fellow citizens.”