Sergio Mattarella - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Sergio Mattarella
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sergio Mattarella (Italian pronunciation: [srdo mattarlla]; born 23 July 1941) is an Italian politician
and laywer who has been the 12th President of Italy since 3 February 2015. He was a member of
Parliament from 1983 to 2008, serving as Minister of Education from 1989 to 1990 and as Minister of
Defence from 1999 to 2001. Later, in 2011, he became a judge on the Constitutional Court.[1] He is the
first Sicilian to have been elected President of Italy.[2]

Sergio Mattarella

Contents
1 Early life
2 Political career
3 President of Italy
4 Personal life
5 References
6 External links
12th President of Italy
Incumbent

Early life
Sergio Mattarella was born in Palermo of a prominent Sicilian family. His father, Bernardo Mattarella,
was an anti-fascist who, alongside Alcide De Gasperi and other prominent Catholic politicians, was one
of the founders of the Christian Democracy (DC) party that dominated the Italian political scene for
almost fifty years, with Bernardo serving as a minister several times.[3] Sergio Mattarella's brother,
Piersanti Mattarella, was also a Christian Democratic politician and President of Sicily from 1978 until
his death in 1980, when he was killed by the Sicilian Mafia.[4]

Assumed office
3 February 2015
Prime Minister

Matteo Renzi

Preceded by

Giorgio Napolitano

Deputy Prime Minister of Italy

In office
21 October 1998 21 December 1999

During his youth, Sergio Mattarella was a member of Azione Cattolica, a large Catholic lay association.
He graduated in law at the University La Sapienza in Rome; after a few years he started teaching
Parliamentary procedure at the University of Palermo.

Prime Minister

Massimo D'Alema

Preceded by

Walter Veltroni

Succeeded by

Gianfranco Fini

Political career

Minister of Defence
In office

Mattarella entered politics after the assassination of his brother Piersanti by the Mafia. His parliamentary
career began in 1983, when he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies in the left-leaning
faction of the Christian Democrats who had supported an agreement with the Italian Communist Party
(PCI) led by Enrico Berlinguer. The following year he was entrusted by the Secretary of the Christian
Democrat, Ciriaco De Mita, to "clean up" the Sicilian faction of the party from Mafia control, at a time
when made men of Cosa Nostra like Salvo Lima and Vito Ciancimino were powerful political figures.[5]
In 1985 Mattarella helped the young lawyer Leoluca Orlando, who had worked alongside his brother
Piersanti during his governorship of Sicily, to become the new Mayor of Palermo.

22 December 1999 11 June 2001

Prime Minister

Massimo D'Alema
Giuliano Amato
Carlo Scognamiglio

Preceded by

Antonio Martino

Succeeded by

Minister of Education
In office

Mattarella was appointed Minister for Parliamentary Affairs in the governments led by Christian
Democratic Prime Ministers Giovanni Goria and Ciriaco De Mita, and in 1989 he became Minister of
Education in the sixth cabinet of Giulio Andreotti. He stood down from his position, together with other
ministers, in 1990 upon parliament's passing of the Mamm Act, liberalising the media sector in Italy,
which they saw as a favour to the media magnate Silvio Berlusconi.[6]
In 1990 Mattarella was appointed Vice-Secretary of Christian Democracy. He left the post two years
later to become director of Il Popolo, the official newspaper of the party. Following the Italian
referendum of 1993 he drafted the new electoral law nicknamed Mattarellum.[7] In 1994, when Christian
Democracy was dissolved in the wake of the Tangentopoli corruption scandal, he helped found the
Italian People's Party (PPI), along with its first leader Mino Martinazzoli and other former Christian
Democrats.[6] In the ensuing 1994 general election (in which the newly-founded PPI fared poorly)
Martinazzoli was again elected to the Chamber of Deputies.[1] He soon found himself engaged in an
internal dispute after the election of a new party leader, Rocco Buttiglione, who wished to steer the
Italian People's Party towards an electoral alliance with Berlusconi's Forza Italia.[6] Following
Buttiglione's appointment, Mattarella resigned as director of Il Popolo in opposition to this policy.[8]

22 July 1989 27 July 1990

Prime Minister

Giulio Andreotti

Preceded by

Giovanni Galloni

Succeeded by

Gerardo Bianco

Minister of Parliamentary Relations

In office
28 July 1987 22 July 1989
Prime Minister

Ciriaco De Mita
Preceded by
Succeeded by

Gaetano Gifuni
Egidio Sterpa
Personal details

Born

Mattarella was one of the first supporters of the economist Romano Prodi at the head of the centre-left
coalition known as The Olive Tree (L'Ulivo) in the 1996 general election. After the electoral victory of
the centre-left, Mattarella served as President of the PPI's parliamentary group. Two years later, when
Prodi's government fell, Mattarella was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence in the
government of Massimo D'Alema, the leader of the Democrats of the Left (DS) . As Defence Minister he
supported the NATO Intervention in Yugoslavia against the Serbian President Slobodan Miloevi; he
also approved a reform of the Italian Armed Forces which abolished conscription. After the resignation
of D'Alema in 2000, Mattarella kept his position as Minister of Defence in the government of Giuliano
Amato.[6]

Giovanni Goria

23 July 1941
Palermo, Italy

Political party

DC (Before 1994)
PPI (19942002)
DL (20022007)
PD (20072009)
Independent (2009present)

Spouse(s)

Marisa Chiazzese ( 2012)

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In October 2000 the PPI joined with other parties to form a centrist alliance called The Daisy (DL), later
to merge into a single party in March 2002. Mattarella was re-elected to the Italian Parliament in the
2001 and 2006 general elections, standing as a candidate for The Daisy in two successive centre-left
coalitions The Olive Tree and The Union (L'Unione).[1]

Bernardo Mattarella (father)

Relations

Piersanti Mattarella (brother)

Bernardo Giorgio

Children

Francesco

In 2007 he was one of the founders of the Democratic Party (PD), a big tent centre-left party formed
from a merger of left-wing and centrist parties which had been part of The Olive Tree, including The
Daisy and the Democrats of the Left (heirs of the Italian Communist Party).[6]

Laura
Alma mater

University of Palermo

Religion

Roman Catholicism

On 5 October 2011 he was elected by the Italian Parliament with 572 votes to be a judge of the
Constitutional Court. He was sworn in on 11 October 2011. He served until he was sworn in as as president of the
Republic of Italy.[9]

President of Italy
On 31 January 2015 Mattarella was elected President of the Italian Republic at the fourth ballot with 665 votes out
of 1,009, with support from the Democratic Party (PD), New Centre-Right (NCD) and Left Ecology Freedom
(SEL).[10][11]
Mattarella was officially endorsed by the Democratic Party, after his name was put forward by the Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi.[12] Mattarella replaced Giorgio Napolitano, who had served for nine years, the longest presidency in
the history of the Italian Republic. His first statement as new President was: "My thoughts go first and especially to
the difficulties and hopes of our fellow citizens".[13][14][15]

Mattarella with the U.S. Secretary of

Defense William Cohen in March
2000.

His first presidential visit was on the day of his election, when he visited the Fosse Ardeatine where, in 1944 during
World War II, the Nazi occupation troops killed 335 people as a reprisal for a partisan attack. Mattarella stated that
"Europe and the world must be united to defeat whoever wants to drag us into a new age of terror".[16]

Personal life
He was married to Marisa Chiazzese, daughter of Lauro Chiazzese, a professor of Roman law and rector of the
University of Palermo. His wife died in 2012. He has three children.[17]

Sergio Mattarella with his predecessor,

Giorgio Napolitano

References
1. ^ a b c "Sergio Mattarella chi ?" (http://www.ilpost.it/2015/01/29/sergiomattarella/). Il Post (in Italian). 29 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January
2015.
2. ^ Walker, Keith (31 January 2015). "73-year-old Sicilian Sergio Mattarella

9. ^ "The Constitutional Court: Composition of the Court"

(http://www.cortecostituzionale.it/ActionPagina_321.do). Constitutional
Court of Italy. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
10. ^ Scacchioli, Michela (31 January 2015). "Mattarella eletto al Quirinale con

is Italys new president" (http://www.euronews.com/2015/01/31/73-year-old-

665 voti. "Pensiero a difficolt e speranze dei cittadini" "

sicilian-sergio-mattarella-is-new-president-of-italy/). Euronews. Reuters.

(http://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni-presidente-repubblica-

Retrieved 5 February 2015.

edizione2015/2015/01/31/news/quirinale_quarta_votazione-106185169/).

3. ^ Gigante Lorenzo. "Personaggi Trapanesi - Bernardo Mattarella"

(http://www.trapaninostra.it/Foto_Trapanesi/Didascalie
/Mattarella_Bernardo.htm). trapaninostra.it.
4. ^ "The Andreotti Affair: Supergrasses target Andreotti"
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/the-andreotti-affair-supergrassestarget-andreotti-1455507.html), The Independent, April 16, 1993.
5. ^ Messina, Sebastiano (29 January 2015). "Sergio Mattarella: dalla morte di
Piersanti al no sulla Mamm, una carriera con la schiena dritta"

Repubblica.it.
11. ^ Italy's Lawmakers Elect Sergio Mattarella as President
(http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/01/31/world/europe/ap-eu-italypolitics.html?_r=0)
12. ^ "PM backs anti-mafia figure for Italy President"
(https://uk.news.yahoo.com/pm-backs-anti-mafia-figure-italy-president204608082.html). Yahoo News UK. 29 January 2015.
13. ^ "Mattarella: "Il pensiero va alle difficolt e alle speranze dei nostri

(http://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni-presidente-repubblica-

concittadini" " (http://video.corriere.it/mattarella-il-pensiero-va-difficolta-

edizione2015/2015/01/29/news

speranze-nostri-concittadini/04eb3abc-a94d-11e4-96d4-6a68544c2eeb).

/sergio_mattarella_dalla_morte_di_piersanti_al_no_sulla_mamm_una_carrie
ra_con_la_schiena_dritta-106032107/). Repubblica.it.
6. ^ a b c d e Cedrone, Giovanni (30 January 2015). "Sergio Mattarella, 35 anni
di politica all'insegna della riservatezza" (http://www.repubblica.it/speciali
/politica/elezioni-presidente-repubblica-edizione2015/2015/01/30/news

Video Corriere.
14. ^ "Italy MPs elect judge Sergio Mattarella as president"
(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31073998). BBC News. 1 February
2015. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
15. ^ "Italy Elects President, While Mulling a Change in Role"

/sergio_mattarella_biografia-106084066/). La Repubblica (in Italian).

(http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/world/europe/italy-elects-president-

Retrieved 31 January 2015.

sergio-mattarella-while-mulling-a-change-in-role.html?_r=0). New York

7. ^ " il Mattarellum il piano B del governo - Corriere.it"

(http://www.corriere.it/politica/14_dicembre_10/mattarellum-pianob-governo-fa50fcb4-8038-11e4-bf7c-95a1b87351f5.shtml). Corriere della
Sera.
8. ^ Credazzi, Guido (2 August 1994). "Mancino: non saro' capogruppo, e
Mattarella lascia il 'Popolo' " (http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1994/agosto

Times. 1 February 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2015.

16. ^ Saviano, Carmine (31 January 2015). "Mattarella, davanti alla tv con i
figli. Poi in Panda e, a sorpresa, va alle Fosse Ardeatine"
(http://www.repubblica.it/speciali/politica/elezioni-presidente-repubblicaedizione2015/2015/01/31/news/la_giornata_di_mattarella-106230331
/?ref=HRER3-1). Repubblica.it.

/02/Mancino_non_saro_capogruppo_Mattarella_co_0_9408028544.shtml).
Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 2 February 2015.

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17. ^ "Sergio Mattarella: profilo privato di un uomo misurato"

uomo-misurato/) (in Italian). Panorama. January 30, 2015. Retrieved

(http://www.panorama.it/news/politica/sergio-mattarella-lato-privato-

January 31, 2015.

External links
Parliamentary profile (http://leg15.camera.it/cartellecomuni/leg15/include

Wikimedia Commons has

media related to Sergio
Mattarella.

/contenitore_dati.asp?deputato=d23870&Pagina=/CartelleComuni/Leg15/Deputati/Composizione
/SchedeDeputati/SchedeDeputati.asp) of Sergio Mattarella in the 15th term of the Italian Chamber of
Deputies (Italian)
Political offices
Preceded by
Gaetano Gifuni

Minister of Parliamentary Relations

19871989

Succeeded by
Egidio Sterpa

Preceded by
Giovanni Galloni

Minister of Education
19891990

Succeeded by
Gerardo Bianco

Preceded by
Walter Veltroni

Deputy Prime Minister of Italy

19981999

Title next held by

Preceded by
Carlo Scognamiglio

Minister of Defence
19992001

Succeeded by
Antonio Martino

Preceded by
Giorgio Napolitano

President of Italy
2015present

Incumbent

Vacant
Gianfranco Fini

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sergio_Mattarella&oldid=645854784"

Categories: 1941 births Candidates for President of Italy Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians Democracy is Freedom The Daisy politicians
Democratic Party (Italy) politicians Government ministers of Italy Italian Ministers of Defence Italian People's Party (1994) politicians
Italian politicians Italian Roman Catholics Judges of the Constitutional Court of Italy Living people Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy)
People from Palermo Politicians of Sicily Presidents of Italy

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