Senator for life

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A Senator for Life in Italy ( Italian senatore a vita ) is a member of the Italian Senate ( Senato della Repubblica ) . The Senate is the second chamber of parliament in Italy and consists of 315 elected senators and the senators for life.

History and function

The Senator's Institute for Life was approved by the Italian National Constituent Assembly on December 27, 1947. According to Art. 59, there are two types of senators for life - ex officio and by appointment. Every President of Italy becomes a Senator for life after he has handed over his office, unless he renounces it. In addition, each President can appoint up to five Italian citizens as senators for life for special merit in the social, scientific, artistic and literary fields. The 59th article of the constitution has not been changed since the constituent national assembly, but the legal interpretation of the second sentence on the number of senators was controversial. President Luigi Einaudi appointed a total of eight senators for life as president, but did not appoint more than five at a time. Subsequent Presidents of the Republic appointed the senators so that the number of incumbent senators did not exceed five. This trend changed with President Sandro Pertini and his successors - the presidents each appointed up to five senators for life, regardless of how many incumbent senators were appointed by their predecessors.

In his first term of office, Giorgio Napolitano only appointed Mario Monti as senator for life, for whom he paved the way into politics and the takeover of government . In his second term in office on August 30, 2013, he appointed four people from the arts and sciences. He was criticized by members of the PdL for not including Silvio Berlusconi .

Of the presidents of Italy, only Enrico De Nicola and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro did not make use of the prerogative to appoint senators for life. All former presidents served as senators for life until their death. Francesco Cossiga announced his resignation on November 27, 2006. However, the declaration of resignation was rejected in a vote on January 31, 2007 by the Senate with a majority of 178 against, with 100 votes in favor of the motion. Among the senators for life by appointment, there was a resignation in one case: the conductor Arturo Toscanini announced his retirement just one day after his appointment. The two Presidents Giovanni Leone (President 1971–1978) and Giorgio Napolitano (President 2006–2015) had been appointed senators for life before they took office; however, her senatorial post was suspended during her presidency. Thereafter, both of them returned to the Senate ex officio as senators for life.

Current Senators for Life

Former Senators for Life

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Italian constitution, German translation , Art. 59.
  2. ^ Napolitano nomina quattro senatori a vita. La Repubblica , August 30, 2013, accessed August 30, 2013 .
  3. ↑ La biografia di Francesco Cossiga. Vita ed attività politica del “Picconatore”. Retrieved November 13, 2011 from italynews.it (Italian)