Mattarella, 10 years at the Quirinale: "Impartial referee", the no to Paolo Savona, anti-fascism and silent persuasion

Sergio Mattarella reaches the historic milestone of 10 years at the Quirinale and is sailing towards the halfway point of his second seven-year term. It was January 31, 2015 when with 665 votes, just under two-thirds of the assembly, he became the first Sicilian to take office at the Quirinale at the age of 73. Seven years later, he did it again, this time with 759 votes out of 1009, a percentage second only to the election of Sandro Pertini.

He himself defined himself as an "impartial arbiter" at the beginning of his first term, and also as a "mechanic": the one who received from the Constitution "the toolbox" to "intervene when the system gets stuck". A toolbox that the president had to use on several occasions, starting from government crises up to the early dissolution of the Chambers. And even more often, silently, by making the robust offices of the Quirinale interact with Palazzo Chigi in the laborious work of balancing many decree laws that would have met with a no from the Colle in the first draft: "Persuasion is more effective if it is not proclaimed in public", is his code.

He was equally determined to blunt some of the opposition's controversies that have always "pulled him by the jacket". "I - he was forced to explain - smile when I am called upon not to promulgate a law because it is wrong. If it is clearly unconstitutional, I have the duty not to promulgate it, but if it is wrong, it is not I who is called by the Constitution to judge whether it is right or wrong, but Parliament ".

His impartial attitude and calm tone have earned him the affection of citizens with personal approval ratings that surpass those of any politician. The Sicilian president is a progressive Catholic but attentive to the advancement of civil rights: his leadership has had the mantra of constitutional respect and the need not to violate the secular spirit of the Republic.

Rather, he made his personal religious beliefs explicit in his acts with extreme attention to the world of solidarity and hardship. Deeply anti-fascist, he had the opportunity to make it clear right away: on January 31, 2015, he chose to visit the Fosse Ardeatine as the first act of his seven-year term. It was a message of rooting in republican history.

"Now and always Resistance," he said in Cuneo on April 25, 2023, a few months after entrusting the government task to Giorgia Meloni, the first Prime Minister to be the leader of a right-wing party. At times he has been forced to choose harsh methods: an emblematic case in 2018 when he put his foot down against the entry into the yellow-green executive, i.e. Conte 1 supported by the League and the Five Star Movement, of the economist from Cagliari Paolo Savona . For him, a convinced European, it was too much: Savona, a Eurosceptic, had supported Italy's exit from the euro. Mattarella showed himself to be equally determined in the government crisis of February 2021 that opened after the fall of the second Conte executive.

The president, aware of the impasse of the political forces, made an independent choice and gave the task to Mario Draghi. The position without nuances of the Quirinale with respect to Covid was fundamental: Mattarella immediately understood its seriousness, supporting the containment measures. The photo of the president at the Spallanzani hospital, patiently waiting for the vaccine together with many other citizens, remains etched in the imagination of Italians. And also the disconcerting image of Mattarella with the mask descending the steps of the Altar of the Fatherland, alone in the dazzling white of the marble.

A punctual defender of Italian interests - emblematic is his defense of Raffaele Fitto for the post of executive vice-president of the European Commission - Mattarella has built personal relationships that have made him Italy's true interlocutor on the international stage.

Always ready to mediate and smooth out interpersonal frictions (see the recurring ones between French President Emmanuel Macron and Meloni), the head of state has anchored Italian foreign policy to Europeanism. Mattarella has also managed to earn the sympathy of Italians for his simplicity thanks to his ability to grasp the passions of his fellow citizens.

An example of this is the first appearance of a President of the Republic in Sanremo . Or his constant attention to sports. From football to volleyball, from tennis to athletics, Mattarella has always shown himself competent by receiving athletes of every discipline at the Quirinale.

(Online Union)