The first Sicilian President

by Daniele Vainella
Sergio Mattarella was born  on the 23rd  July 1941. He  is an Italian politician, lawyer and judge and the current President of Italy since his election on the 31st January 2015.
 He was a Member of the Italian Parliament from 1983 to 2008, serving as Minister of Education from 1989 to 1990 and as Minister of Defence from 1999 to 2001. In 2011, he became an elected judge of the Constitutional Court.  Mattarella is the 13th President of the Italian Republic and the first Sicilian.


Sergio Mattarella was born in Palermo from  a prominent Sicilian family. His father, Bernardo Mattarella, was an anti-fascist who, alongside Alcide De Gasperi and other prominent Catholic politicians, helped to  found the Christian Democracy (DC) party, which dominated the Italian political scene for almost fifty years, with Bernardo serving as a minister several times. 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.
During his youth, Sergio Mattarella was a member of Azione Cattolica, a large Catholic  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.
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 wing area  of the DC that had supported an agreement with the Italian Communist Party (PCI) led by Enrico Berlinguer, the so-called Historic Compromise. 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 men of Cosa Nostra like Salvo Lima and Vito Ciancimino were powerful political figures. 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.
On 5th  October 2011 he was elected by the Italian Parliament with 572 votes as  a judge of the Constitutional Court. He swore  on 11th  October 2011. He served the Court until his election   as  President of the Republic of Italy.
The Italian new President is a white-haired Sicilian whose election has had a great impact on the public opinion in Palermo, as well as in Italy. His natural reserve, his shy temper, his air of a kind professor, together  with his plenty of experience of high office, have created great expectations in all Italian citizens.
He is, in the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s words “ a man of the law, a man of the battle against mafia”. Italian people trust in Sergio Mattarella as the man who will be able to give Italy the chance to go out from the economic, moral and institutional crisis the country has experienced so far.