Napolitano laid to rest in Italy’s first secular funeral for president

Italy held its first non-religious funeral for a head of state on Tuesday with a secular service in parliament for Giorgio Napolitano, a two-time president who died last week aged 98.

Napolitano was the first former communist to become president and the first person to be elected twice to the post, which he held from 2006 to 2015.”He fought good battles and supported wrong causes, trying, little by little, to correct mistakes and explore new paths,” his son Giulio told dignitaries, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron and German President Frank Walter Steinmeier.At least eight former Italian prime ministers were also present.”He couldn’t stand demagogy, the spirit of faction, the reduction of political debate to shouting and invective,” Giulio Napolitano said.Italian presidents are mostly ceremonial figures, but admirers credit Napolitano with having saved the country from financial ruin in 2011 when he persuaded the then-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign during a debt crisis, opening the way for a technocratic government that placated the markets.

via Reuters