Giorgio Napolitano became the first president in Italian history to secure a second seven-year term. (Image: Reuters) 

Napolitano was elected with the votes of 738 of the 1,007 parliamentarians and regional representatives in a sixth round of voting after they had failed to find a mutually acceptable candidate in the previous attempts.

He is expected to try to push for the formation of a broad coalition government in a round of consultations with party chiefs starting next week.

In almost two months, Napolitano, one of the world’s oldest heads of state, has failed to broker a solution to the gridlock that emerged from the February election which left no group with enough seats in parliament to form a government.

A broad coalition has so far been rejected by the centre-left, which won most seats and refused to join forces with Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right.

However Napolitano now has the power to dissolve parliament, which he did not have in the final months of his current term. Most on the centre-left, which has been torn apart by internal divisions since the February vote, fear new elections and so may be more willing to come to terms with Berlusconi.

(Reuters)