Sicilian judge sworn in as Italy’s new head of state

FE Team | Published: February 04, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

ROME, Feb 3 (AFP): Sergio Mattarella, a Sicilian constitutional court judge closely associated with the fight against organised crime, was sworn in on Tuesday as Italy's new president.
Mattarella, 73, was elected by lawmakers on Saturday to succeed Giorgio Napolitano, who stood down two years into his second term citing fatigue at the age of 89.
Mattarella becomes Italy's 12th president since the country became a Republic after World War II.
His election has been seen as a political coup for Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
The youthful, centre-left prime minister had backed Mattarella despite opposition from opposition leader and former premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Renzi's candidate comfortably carried the vote with 665 of the votes cast in a 1,009-member electoral college.
The new president was until now little known to ordinary Italians. But the white-haired former academic has long been a respected figure in political circles after a 25-year parliamentary career and several stints as minister in governments of the left and right.
He entered politics after his elder brother, who was president of the region of Sicily, was murdered by the Mafia in 1980.
Mattarella is also seen as a foe of Berlusconi, having once resigned from government over a media law he and other ministers regarded as overly favourable to the tycoon's television interests.
The new president is now being a member of Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) having started his career as a Christian Democrat.
The presidency in Italy is a largely ceremonial role but the holder of the office can play a significant role at times of political crises, which have been a regular feature of Italian life for the last half century.
Italy's new president, Sergio Mattarella, has taken the oath of office with a vow to fight corruption and organized crime and encourage the nation to embrace economic and electoral reform.
The new head of state, whose brother, Piersanti Mattarella, was slain while governor of Sicily by the Mafia in 1980, denounced as "alarming" the spread of the Mafia from its traditional base in the south to northern cities. Mattarella, in his speech to Parliament Tuesday, also decried pervasive corruption, which he said robs citizens of resources meant for them and upsets market rules, "penalizing the honest and the capable."