(ANSA) - Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said on Wednesday he wanted to complete the last six months of his mandate without being dragged into the push and shove of national politics.
Apparently nettled by a spate of political debate over whether he should be given a second term, Ciampi was brief and pithy when asked for a comment by reporters during his official visit to Istanbul.
"I can just say this: my only aspiration is to end with dignity the mandate that was given me on May 13, 1999. You know what meaning I give to the term dignity." Ciampi, who will turn 85 next month, will reach the end of his seven-year term in May next year, roughly when general elections are due to be held.
Italian presidents are elected by parliament. A two thirds majority is needed, meaning that in practice a head of state cannot be chosen by ruling parties alone. The period before the election of a new president is frequently marked by horse-trading as politicians manoeuvre for their candidates of choice.
A public debate about the possibility of a second Ciampi term was sparked at the weekend when Deputy Premier Gianfranco Fini said in an interview it would be an "excellent" idea.
A flurry of comments followed as several politicians made their views known. Most were positive although one government party, the regionalist Northern League, seems to have reservations. Some, including Premier Silvio Berlusconi and leading
opposition figures, said that such talk was premature and refused to be drawn.
Ciampi's remarks in Istanbul on Wednesday were widely interpreted as an expression of annoyance that a discussion which inevitably implied a judgment on his work should begin when he was still in office. "You can't get any clearer than that," Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said.
Franco Monaco, opposition leader Romano Prodi's right-hand man, referred to Ciampi's "irritation" with regard to "obscure manoeuvres and tactical games".
"It was a mistake to drag the head of state into the debate," said Luciano Violante, House whip for the Left Democrats. "What he said was clear - he'll carry on doing what he has done with the same high standards until the end of the legislature."
Communications Minister Mario Landolfi, who is a member of Fini's right wing National Alliance party, defended the deputy premier from suggestions that he should never have raised the matter in the first place.
"I don't think Ciampi's words are a reprimand (ritorsione) to Fini. He just wanted to reiterate that he has full powers right to the end of his mandate."
Ciampi, a former Bank of Italy governor and premier, was elected with 707 votes out of a possible 990.
He was economy minister in Romano Prodi's centre-left government which, thanks to some tough budget measures, succeeded in 1997 in steering Italy into the group of countries which launched the euro zone.
