A canny and wise arbiter of political
disputes, staunch parliamentarian, helmsman of the post-pandemic
recovery, progressive Catholic, loved by Italians for his polite
and calm demeanour which marked his authoritative position as a
"pater familias" and a statesman who kept an admi-rably low
profile while carrying out his elevated task, Sergio Mattarella
has just ended a seven year term that, in spite of his image of
a man who dislikes conflict, has been one of the toughest in
Italian republican history.
He has overseen no fewer than five governments in seven years, a
mark of a deep crisis in Italian politics that also affected a
Europe wracked by the return of nationalism.
The mild-mannered president, in fact, showed his muscles as the
staunchest of pro-Europeans to combat Italy's drift into
populism, going so far as to threaten the birth of Giuseppe
Conte's first government backed by the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S) and the nationalist League party with his
determination not to place in the economy ministry a figure, the
Euroskeptic Paolo Savona, who in his mind would have roiled the
financial markets and brought into doubt the very existence of
the Union.
Savona, an economist sponsored by the League and also welcomed
by the Euroskeptic M5S of the time, had never made a secret of
his opposition to European integration. Mattarella therefore
used his constitutional powers over the formation of a
government and issued a stunning No that prompted the M5S to
argue that he should be impeached.
Mattarella won the battle, Savona ended up at European Affairs
and the Economy portfolio went to Giovanni Tria. It was June
2018, and the president saved the legislature with a Legue-M5S
coalition that would have been unimaginable a mere few weeks
beforehand. It didn't last long, however.. Mattarella was forced
to deal with a fresh crisis about a year later. In August 2019
Matteo Salvini's League left the government and Conte resigned,
only to be given a second mandate by Mattarella and create an
even more unimaginable coalition between the M5S and their
long-time foes in the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
There was no time to even think about the outcome of the
operation when Italy was hit by COVID. The pandemic forced the
had of State to assume a highly delicate role of political guide
for a country laid low by the virus and deafened by the wailing
of ambulance sirens.
Mattarella had no doubts on the way to proceed and, long before
the political world, chose the path of rigour, science and the
assumption of responsibilities. He suggested and shepherded the
line of collective responsibility, explaining to Italians the
reason for the very tough choices that enclosed the country in a
surreal bubble. These choices were at first regarded with
suspicion abroad but later followed with admiration by almost
the whole of Europe. He was among the first to get vaccinated
for COVID-19 and once more forgot his meekness in condemning a
far-rightist raid on the offices of trade union CGIL during an
anti-vax protest in Rome.
After that his reprimands against the "irresponsibility" of the
anti-vaxxers became ever more fre-quent. The pandemic did not
prevent the opening of a new government crisis, with the return
of major concern for the Quirinale Palace, from which he could
see an Italy debilitated and wracked by the economic crisis. The
collapse of Conte's second government was triggered by former
premier Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva (IV) party and the premier's
attempts to eke out enough sup-port for a new majority were
observed silently by the president, who actually had quite
different plans. Faced with the risk of early election at the
height of the health emergency, Mattarella pro-duced his ace
card: taking everyone by surprise, he called former European
Central Bank chief Mario Draghi to the Quirinale with the goal
of forming an emergency national unity government. It was this
move that rolled back history, showing once again that the
president's anchoring to Europe was the fruit of a rational plan
and not a mere matter of principle. It was at that time that the
European Union had put together what Mattarella himself
described as "an epochal change", and by abandoning austerity
Brussels had opened the purse strings with the landmark Recovery
Fund, the huge rescue plan of which Italy would be the biggest
beneficiary. And who could be better than the former ECB
Governor, who could have the political clout to reset the
vaccine rollout and manage the over 200 billion euros in the
Recovery Plan? It was with this twin mission that Mario Draghi's
government was born, and only the hard right Brothers of Italy
(FdI) party of Giorgia Meloni decided not to join the rest of
Italy's parties in backing it.
It has thus been a seven-year term that has been very positive
despite the difficulties placed in its path. This is shown,
also, by the very high approval ratings Mattarella enjoys among
Italians. Mattarella can be criticized for very little. Perhaps
the ledger may show an excessive caution, a lack of intervention
on a few badly written decrees, the realpolitik typical of the
Christian Demo-crat school he grew up in, and the air of
inaccessibility shown by his using only institutional speeches
to communicate. In short, nothing could be further from hearty
presidency of Sandro Pertini or his predecessor "King Giorgio"
Napolitano. But it certainly has been a successful presi-dency,
as shown by the non-stop demands for him to stay on for a second
term. Not once, but twice, and even three times Mattarella has
made it clear he wants to retire from public life. But despite
this, there are so many that would like the "mild-mannered
president" to remain at the helm.
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