Giorgio Napolitano, Italy’s longest-serving president, resigned today, creating a challenge for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s plans to overhaul the nation’s economy and political system.

The dilemma for Renzi is to find a successor to Napolitano, 89, who is willing to support his reform agenda and help him broker political compromises in a deeply fragmented parliament, as the president did over the past few months.

“The president of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, signed this morning, at 10:35, the resignation from his office,” according to a statement from the presidential palace.

The 40-year-old prime minister also needs a candidate willing to dissolve parliament at his request. Calling snap elections could be a weapon of last resort for Renzi, who’s trying to push through changes to the country’s electoral system and adopt measures to spur growth amid opposition even from some members of his own party.

“I think Renzi wants the presidential college to choose a low-profile president, someone who is not too independent like Napolitano, and who is willing to agree on early elections if the premier needs them,” Giovanni Orsina, a history professor at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome, said in a telephone interview. “It remains to be seen if Renzi will succeed.”

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Matteo Renzi, Italy’s Prime Minister.

Leaders of Renzi’s Democratic Party will meet this week to start discussing possible names of a candidate to propose to their political allies, party member Valentina Paris told reporters in Rome today.