World Politics
List of Presidents of Italy,Presidents of the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Italy,Presidents of the Italian Republic, Italian Presidents,List Of President In Itly.President List Of Itly,Itly Presidents.
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- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:41
| List of Presidents of Italy,Presidents of the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Italy,Presidents of the Italian Republic, Italian Presidents,List Of President In Itly.President List Of Itly,Itly Presidents. | ||||
| Photo | NAME | Country | Starting Year | Ending Year |
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Giorgio Napolitano | Italy | 5/15/2006 | Till Date |
| Napolitano was elected on 10 May, in the fourth round of voting — the first of those requiring only an absolute majority, unlike the first three which required two-thirds of the votes — with 543 votes (out of a possible 1009). At the age of 80, he became the first former Communist to become President of Italy, as well as the third Neapolitan after Enrico De Nicola and Giovanni Leone. In November 2011, after barely surviving a motion of no confidence in December 2010, Berlusconi resigned from his post as head of the government, having lost the trust of the Parliament following increasingly dramatic financial and economical conditions. President Napolitano then decided to appoint former EU commissioner Mario Monti as a senator for life, and then as prime minister designate. Monti was subsequently confirmed by an overwhelming majority of both houses of the Italian Parliament, in what was widely referred to as a "government of the president". Napolitano's management of the events caused unprecedented worldwide media exposure regarding his role as President of the Italian Republic (usually referred to as nothing more than a ceremonial one) and also won him the nickname "King George" from The New York Times. | ||||
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Carlo Azeglio Ciampi | Italy | 5/18/1999 | 5/15/2006 |
| Ciampi was elected with a broad majority, and was the second president ever to be elected at the first ballot. He usually refrained from intervening directly into the political debate while serving as President. However, he often addressed general issues, without mentioning their connection to the current political debate, in order to state his opinion without being too intrusive. His interventions have frequently stressed the need for all parties to respect the constitution and observe the proprieties of political debate. He was generally held in high regard by all political forces represented in the parliament. As President, Ciampi was not considered to be close to the positions of the Vatican and the Catholic Church, in a sort of alternance after the devout Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. He has often praised patriotism, not always a common feeling in Italy because of its abuse by the fascist regime; Ciampi, however, seems to want to stress self-confidence rather than nationalism. |
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Oscar Luigi Scalfaro | Italy | 5/28/1992 | 5/15/1999 |
| Scalfaro was the first President of the Second Republic. He was elected on 25 May 1992, after a two week stalemate of unsuccessful attempts to reach agreement. The killing of anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone prompted his election. His mandate ended in May 1999, and he automatically became a lifetime member of the Senate. Scalfaro was the last Christian democrat to become President of Italy. |
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Francesco Cossiga | Italy | 7/3/1985 | 4/28/1992 |
| Following his resignation as president of the Senate in 1985, Cossiga was elected President of Italy (Head of State). This was the first time a candidate had won following the first ballot (where a majority of over two thirds is necessary). He opined that the Italian parties, especially the DC (his own party) and Italian Communist Party, had to take into account the deep changes brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. These statements, soon dubbed "esternazioni", or "mattock blows" (picconate), were considered by many to be inappropriate for a President and, often, beyond his constitutional powers; also, his mental health was doubted and Cossiga had to declare "I am the fake madman who speaks the truth." Tension developed between Cossiga and the President of the Council of Ministers Giulio Andreotti. This tension emerged when Andreotti revealed the existence of Gladio, a stay-behind organization with the official aim of countering a possible Soviet invasion through sabotage and guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. Cossiga announced his involvement in the establishment of the organization. On 28 April 1992 Cossiga resigned two months before the end of his term; he was the last President of the First Republic |
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Alessandro Pertini | Italy | 7/9/1978 | 6/29/1985 |
| Pertini was the first Socialist to become President of Italy. As President he succeeded in regaining the public's trust in the State and institutions. During the Brigate Rosse terrorism period of the Anni di piombo, Pertini was a defender of the institutions he represented. His death in Rome was viewed by many as a national tragedy, and he is arguably one of modern Italy's most accomplished politicians. Pertini is considered one of the best President in the history of Italy. |
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Giovanni Leone | Italy | 12/29/1971 | 6/15/1978 |
| After having been unofficially several times candidate to the Presidency of the Republic, he was named Life Senator in 1967. In 1968 he was again Premier for some months. In 1971 he succeeded Giuseppe Saragat as President of Italy, being elected with votes of a right-centre majority of the Parliament (518 out of 996 votes, including those of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement). He was forced to resign from his position following his involvement in the Lockheed |
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Giuseppe Saragat | Italy | 12/29/1964 | 12/29/1971 |
| Saragat was the first Social democratic leader to become President of Italy. Its election was the result of one of the rare cases of unity of Italian left, threatened by rumors of a possible neo-fascist coup during Antonio Segni's presidency. In his precidency he tried to unit the Christian democrats with the Socialists and the Communists |
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Antonio Segni | Italy | 5/11/1962 | 12/6/1964 |
| Segni was elected President of the Italian Republic on 6 May 1962 (854 to 443 votes). He suffered a serious cerebral hemorrhage while working at the presidential palace on 7 August 1964. At the time he was 73 years old and the first prognosis were not positive. He only partially recovered, and he retired from office on 6 December 1964. In the interim, the President of the Senate Cesare Merzagora served as acting president.Politically, Segni was a moderate conservative opposed to "opening to the centre-left" enabling coalition governments between the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and the Christian Democrats. Segni was later accused of having tried to instigate a coup d'état (known as Piano Solo) along with General Giovanni De Lorenzo during his presidency to frustrate the opening to the left. |
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Giovanni Gronchi | Italy | 5/11/1955 | 5/11/1962 |
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His period in office lasted until 1962. It was marked by the ambition to bring about a gradual “opening to the left”, whereby the Socialists and the (still Stalinist) Communist Party would be brought back into the national government, and Italy would abandon NATO, becoming a non-aligned country. There was however stiff parliamentary opposition to this project, particularly by the small Italian Liberal Party, which was deemed a necessary ingredient of any viable majority. In an attempt to escape the deadlock, in 1959 Gronchi appointed as Prime Minister a trusted member of his own Catholic left-wing faction, Fernando Tambroni, sending him to Parliament with a “President’s government” but no pre-arranged majority. However Tambroni found himself surviving in Parliament only thanks to neo-fascist votes. This unforeseen “opening to the right” had serious consequences. In 1960 there were bad riots in several towns of Italy, particularly at Genoa, Licata and Reggio Emilia, where the police opened fire on demonstrators, killing five people. The Tambroni government thus ended in ignominy; forced to resign, it was followed by an all-DC government, with a traditionally centrist parliamentary majority. The unhappy Tambroni experiment tarnished Gronchi’s reputation for good, and until the end of his period of office he remained a lame-duck President. In 1962 he attempted to get a second mandate, with the powerful help of Enrico Mattei, but the attempt failed and Antonio Segni was elected instead. |
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Luigi Einaudi | Italy | 5/12/1948 | 5/11/1955 |
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Einaudi personally managed the activities of his farm near Dogliani, producing Nebbiolo wine, for which he boosted to be using the most advanced agricultural developments. In 1950, monarchist satirical magazine Candido published a cartoon in which Einaudi is at the Quirinal Palace, surrounded by a presidential guard of honour (the corazzieri) of giant bottles of Nebbiolo wine, each labeled with the institutional logo. The cartoon was judged a lese-majesty by a court of the time, and Giovannino Guareschi, as the director of the magazine, was held responsible and sentenced. |
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Enrico De Nicola | Italy | 7/1/1946 | 5/12/1948 |
| De Nicola was the first President of Italy. Once the monarchy had ended, the Constituent Assembly elected De Nicola Provisional Head of State on 28 June 1946, with 80% of the votes, at the first round of voting. On 25 June 1947, De Nicola resigned from the post, citing health reasons, but the Constituent Assembly immediately re-elected him again the following day, having recognized in his act signs of nobility and humility. After the Italian Constitution took effect, he was formally named the "President of the Italian Republic" on 1 January 1948. He finally refused to be a candidate for the first constitutional election the following May, in which Luigi Einaudi was elected to the Quirinale | ||||