Sergio Mattarella

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Sergio Mattarella (2015)
Signature of Sergio Mattarella

Sergio Mattarella (born July 23, 1941 in Palermo , Sicily ) is an Italian jurist and politician of the Partito Democratico . He has been the twelfth President of the Italian Republic since February 3, 2015 . On January 29, 2022, the 80-year-old was elected President for a further seven years. He was previously a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 1983 to 2008, Minister of Education from 1989 to 1990 , Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2001 and Constitutional Court judge from 2011 to 2015 .

family

Mattarella comes from a left-wing Catholic family. His father Bernardo was Minister of Democrazia Cristiana (DC) several times in the 1950s and 1960s . His older brother Piersanti Mattarella was president of the Sicily region and was assassinated by the Sicilian mafia in 1980 . In 1964, Sergio Mattarella graduated in law from the University of Rome . Before entering politics, he taught parliamentary law at the University of Palermo .

Mattarella was married to Marisa Chiazzese until her death in 2012. The couple have three children. On state visits and important occasions, he is often accompanied by his daughter Laura Mattarella . She is therefore also known as the First Lady .

Political career

Mattarella entered the DC after his brother's assassination and was first elected to the Camera dei deputati (Chamber of Deputies) in the 1983 general election. Within the DC, he was counted among the left- wing wing of the party , which had committed to Aldo Moro 's political course. In 1987 he became Minister for Relations with Parliament, in 1989 Minister for Education in the Andreotti VI government . He resigned from this office in 1990 in protest against the Legge Mammì law. Mattarella saw in the law the danger that Italian private television would be monopolized by Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest company . The new political secretary of the DC, Mino Martinazzoli , entrusted Mattarella in 1992 with the editorship of the party newspaper "Il Popolo".

From April to September 1993, Mattarella was Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Institutional Reform. During this time he introduced a proposal for a reform of the Italian electoral law to Parliament. The background to this was the successful referendum of April 18, 1993, in which the majority of voters spoke out in favor of abolishing the proportional representation system that had been in force until then , and which was held partly responsible for the frequently unstable majority relationships in parliament. The law proposed by Mattarella introduced for the first time in Italy a first - past-the-post system (for three quarters of the seats in the Camera dei deputati; the rest were further allocated according to proportional representation) and a threshold of 4 percent. The law, which was used in the 1994 , 1996 and 2001 general elections, was dubbed “Mattarellum” (also reminiscent of mattarello , the Italian word for “rolling pin”) by political scientist Giovanni Sartori in reference to its author. It marked – together with a total upheaval in the party system and the entry of Silvio Berlusconi into politics – the transition from the Italian “First” to the “Second Republic”.

Sergio Mattarella (1994)

In the 1994 general election , Mattarella moved into the Chamber of Deputies for the DC successor party Partito Popolare Italiano (PPI), where he represented the Sicily 1 constituency. In the legislative period until 1996 he was deputy chairman of the committee for constitutional questions and the parliamentary committee of inquiry into terrorism in Italy. At the PPI party congress in July 1994, he rejected the election of Rocco Buttiglione as party leader of the PPI because he was striving for an alliance with Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. Mattarella, on the other hand, advocated a coalition with the Democratici di Sinistra (Left Democrats). When Buttiglione won the election, Mattarella resigned as editor-in-chief of the party newspaper Il Popolo. From 1995 he supported a candidacy by Romano Prodi at the head of a centre-left alliance including left-wing democrats and communists. With this attitude he was finally able to assert himself in the PPI and Buttiglione left the party with his wing. In 1995, Mattarella was one of the founders of the L'Ulivo alliance, which won the parliamentary elections on April 21, 1996 , with Prodi as the lead candidate .

From October 21, 1998 to December 21, 1999, Mattarella was Deputy Prime Minister under Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema . He then served as Secretary of Defense in the D'Alema II and Amato II cabinets from December 22, 1999 to June 20, 2001 . After the 2001 election , the centre-left camp was in opposition to Berlusconi's second government . Mattarella was Vice-Chairman and from 2002 to 2003 Chairman of the Committee on Legislation and from 2001 to 2006 Spokesman for the Margherita Group in the Committee on Foreign and EC Affairs. The PPI merged with several smaller parties in 2002 to form Democrazia è Libertà - La Margherita , to which Mattarella subsequently belonged.

In 2006 he was elected to the Italian Parliament for the seventh and final time. He was then chairman of the judicial staff committee and spokesman for the Partito Democratico-L'Ulivo faction in the Foreign and European Committee. Mattarella is considered one of the founding fathers of the Partito Democratico (PD), which emerged as a centre-left rallying party from the L'Ulivo alliance and into which the Margherita party also merged. In 2007 he was one of the authors of the founding manifesto of the party. Mattarella did not stand for re-election in the 2008 general election.

constitutional judge

Mattarella, who had been a member of the self-governing body of administrative justice since May 2009 , was elected judge at the Constitutional Court by the Italian Parliament on October 5, 2011, at the suggestion of the PD .

President

Mattarella with Arno Kompatscher , Alexander Van der Bellen and Renzo Caramaschi in Bolzano on November 23, 2019
Sergio Mattarella addressing the Quirinal Palace on January 29, 2021
Mattarella with Matteo Berrettini at Wembley Stadium for the 2021 European Football Championship final

On January 31, 2015, Mattarella was elected President of Italy in a joint meeting of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate and representatives of the Italian regions (1009 eligible voters) in the fourth ballot with 665 of 995 votes cast. Matteo Renzi , head of government and PD chairman, had proposed him as the successor to Giorgio Napolitano , who had resigned . Mattarella was sworn in on February 3, 2015.

In October 2021, with a view to his presidential term ending in January 2022, he indicated that he did not want a limited extension or a second term.

After seven unsuccessful ballots to elect a new president, the party leaders of all parties involved in the coalition under Prime Minister Mario Draghi met on January 29, 2022. After that, former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the Lega said he was ready to support Mattarella's re-election, if not out of conviction, but out of an understanding of the necessity. Mattarella was re-elected President on the same day. With 759 out of 1009 possible votes, he achieved the second-best result in an election for President. Only Sandro Pertini was able to unite in 1978 with 832 more votes behind him.

Since taking office as President, Sergio Mattarella has made the following official trips abroad:

honors and awards

As President, Mattarella is head of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and four other orders of merit in Italy . The Chain of Orders of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic is an official insignia of the President. Mattarella had already been awarded the Grand Cross of the Order in 2011, and in 1991 also a Medal of Merit for Education, Culture and Art.

As President, Mattarella received the following awards from other states or subjects of international law:

Sergio Mattarella is also a member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem .

See also

web links

Commons : Sergio Mattarella  - Collection of images

itemizations

  1. ↑ Giuseppe Ignesti:  Mattarella, Bernardo. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 72:  Massimino–Mechetti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2009.
  2. ↑ Mattarella, Sergio. In: Encyclopedia on line. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  3. ↑ Jörg Bremer: Italy: "Good work, President Mattarella!" In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . 31 January 2015, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed 26 May 2017]).
  4. ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine: Sergio Mattarella is the director in the background . In: Augsburg General . ( augsburger-allgemeine.de [accessed May 26, 2017]).
  5. ^ Simon Parker, Electoral reform and political change in Italy, 1991-1994. In: Stephen Gundle, Simon Parker: The New Italian Republic. From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi. Routledge, London/New York 1996, pp. 40-56, at pp. 46-47.
  6. ↑ Jens Urbat: Right-wing populists in power. Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia in the new Italian party system. Lit Verlag, Hamburg 2007, p. 78.
  7. ↑ Mattarella eletto al Quirinale con 665 voti: it lui il nuovo presidente della Repubblica. La Repubblica, January 31, 2015, retrieved January 31, 2015 .
  8. ↑ derstandard.at: "Italy: Renzi wants Judge Mattarella as President" (29 January 2015) , retrieved on 30 January 2015
  9. ↑ Mattarella is Italy's new President , SZ , January 31, 2015, retrieved January 31, 2015.
  10. ↑ Matthias Rüb : Why Draghi is firmly in the saddle . In: FAZ.net October 19, 2021 and FAZ. See also en:2022 Italian presidential election .
  11. ↑ Matthias Rüb: Italy's coalition asks Matarella "[sic]" for another term. In: faz.net. 29 January 2022, retrieved 29 January 2022 .
  12. ↑ Sergio Mattarella re-elected President of Italy. In: faz.net. 29 January 2022, retrieved 29 January 2022 .
  13. ↑ Mattarella rieletto Capo dello Stato. Il Parliamento lo acclama with 759 votes. In: ilsole24ore.com. January 29, 2022, retrieved January 30, 2022 (Italian).
  14. ^ Short descriptions of the journeys on quirinale.it
personal data
SURNAME Mattarella, Sergio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian lawyer and politician (Partito Democratico), member of the Camera dei deputati, President
BIRTH DATE July 23, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Palermo