Parliament shall meet within 15 days joint session with members of the Senate, the House of Representatives and 58 regional delegates to elect the new Italian president.

He had come to the rescue of a parliament in disarray, accepting the general demand for a second term despite his advanced age, to bring the country to a deadlock. The Italian President Giorgio Napolitano will resign “in the coming hours,” announced on 13 January the head of government Matteo Renzi during a speech to the European Parliament.

Matteo Renzi paid tribute to Giorgio Napolitano, convinced European who precisely in the next few hours, will resign from his position after completing a long journey of change, the turning of a speech taking stock of the Italian Presidency of the European Union, which ended on 31 December. His praise sparked applause from MEPs and the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker .

Re-elected in April 2013 for lack of agreement in Parliament on another candidate, Giorgio Napolitano, 89, has never made any secret of his intention to leave his position before the end of the seven-year in 2020 due to his age and his health.

The race to find a successor was launched in mid-December when Giorgio Napolitano said he had not intended to stay a long time at the head of the country, ensuring that its function would end the same time as the Italian EU Presidency.

After his formal resignation, Parliament shall meet within 15 days in the joint session with members of the Senate, the House of Representatives and 58 regional delegates to elect the new president.