The document summarizes the role and powers of the President of the Republic of Italy based on the country's constitution. It outlines that the President is the head of state and institutions, a supervisory body above the traditional separation of powers. While not part of the executive, the President has various formal and informal powers, including appointing ministers, dissolving parliament, and using "moral suasion" to influence politics during times of weakness or crisis. The President is elected by parliament for a seven-year term.

1. THE PRESIDENT OF
THE REPUBLIC
ITALY
September 2018

2. HEAD OF THE INSTITUTIONS
As Head of State, President of the High Council of the Judiciary,
Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, the President of the Republic
is the head of the institutions of the Republic and the centre of balance
in Italy’s institutional architecture.
The Constitution, under Articles 83-91, sets forth the President’s
powers and competences and regulates his relations with the other
bodiesonthesameconstitutionallevel:theGovernment,theParliament,
the Judiciary and the Constitutional Court.

3. SUPERVISORY BODY
The President of the Republic is a supervisory body: he is not part of
the executive and his power is neutral, hence above the traditional
tripartite separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers.
The role of the President may also be seen as the power to provide
political and constitutional guidance to
ensure compliance with the Constitution and
that Italy fulfils its international obligations.

4. ELECTION
If you’d like to know more, read Telos
A&S’s slide share on how the Presi-
dent of the Republic is elected by
clicking here.
The President is elected by
the “Parliament in joint ses-
sion” (Art. 83), a body made
up of the members of the
Chamber of Deputies and
the Senate and three del-
egates from each of the Re-
gional Councils (one for the
Val d’Aosta).

5. TWENTY-THREE ROUNDS TO ONE
The longest election was that of Giovanni Leone, elected after
twenty-three rounds of voting in 1975.
The most difficult was that of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro in 1992. The
crisis of the party system of the First Republic led to a long period of
deadlock that was not broken until the sixteenth round: the massive
impact on the Institutions and public opinion of the Capaci bombing
by the Sicilian mafia prompted the political forces to overcome their
differences and divisions.
In 1985 Parliament was in immediate agreement on Francesco
Cossiga and in 1999 on Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, both elected after
the first round of voting with over 70% of the votes.

6. MANDATE
Any citizen who is fifty or
older and enjoys civil and
political rights may be elect-
ed President of the Republic.
This office is incompatible
with any other office.
The President is elected for a seven-
year term: longer than the five-year
term of a legislature so as to reinforce
the President’s independence and
supervisory role.

7. THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
AND THE GOVERNMENT
The President:
is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and makes
declarations of war which have been decided by the Houses;
accredits and receives diplomatic representatives, and ratifies
international treaties which have been authorised by the Houses,
where required under the Constitution;
appoints State officials;
issuesGovernmentacts,suchaslawdecreesandlegislativedecrees;
authorises the Government to present bills to the Houses;
confers the honorary distinctions of the Republic;
appoints Prime Ministers and, on their proposal, the Ministers;
dissolves the Regional Councils when acts have been committed
that are in contrast with the Constitution or grave violations of the law.

8. The President may:
dissolve the Houses of Parliament, convene them in extraordinary
session, call for new elections and set the first meeting of the new
Parliament;
promulgate laws;
appoint five life senators;
refer laws back to the Houses;
send messages to the Houses;
call for referenda.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
AND THE PARLIAMENT

9. The President:
chairs the High Council of the Judiciary;
has the power to grant pardons and commute punishments.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
AND THE JUDICIARY

10. HEAD OF STATE
The President of the Republic, as Head of State, has the powers
of general representative of the Republic: one of these powers is
to ratify international treaties which have been authorised by the
Houses (Art. 87), where required under the Constitution.
The ratification of a treaty is an act whereby
a State undertakes to be bound by the legal
regulations of the treaty before the international
community.
Our Constitution gives the Head of State the power of ratification
precisely because he is the highest authority and ensures the fulfilment
of international commitments, which go beyond the politics of a
transitory parliamentary/government majority.

11. MINISTERIAL COUNTERSIGNATURE
The Head of State assumes
no responsibility, either le-
gal or political. Under Art.
89 “No act of the President
of the Republic is valid if it is
not countersigned by the
proposing ministers, who as-
sume responsibility for it.”
The fact that acts must be
countersigned by the propos-
ing ministers indicates that
the Government assumes
political responsibility for the
acts before the Parliament,
which represents the sover-
eignty of the people.
This has given rise to a number of
problems regarding interpretation: if
the President issues the acts of the
executive, yet each of his acts must
be signed by the proposing Minister
otherwise it will be considered inva-
lid, what are the exclusive powers of
the President and what, on the other
hand, are the exclusive powers of the
Government?

12. The acts of the President may be divided into three categories:
formal and substantial acts of the President: the exclusive
competence of the President, the countersignature confirms that the
President has effectively exercised his power;
formal acts of the President that actually are acts of the
Government in its capacity to make political choices: the Head
of State checks in advance whether or not the Government acts are
constitutional;
dual acts: express competences that are shared between the
President of the Republic and the proposing Minister.
ACTS OF THE PRESIDENT

13. FORMAL AND SUBSTANTIAL ACTS
OF THE PRESIDENT
Acts wherein the President represents the State in general, or fulfilled
towards non-governmental bodies, such as in the case of:
the appointment of Constitutional Court judges;
the appointment of life Senators;
approved bills that are referred back to the Houses;
messages to the Houses;
granting pardons and commuting punishments.

14. PARDONING POWER
In 2006 there was a conflict
regarding who is vested with
pardoning power in Italy: the
President of the Republic or
the Ministry of Justice.
Former Head of State Carlo
Azeglio Ciampi decided to
pardon Ovidio Bompressi,
sentenced to 22 years in
prison for the murder of po-
lice officer Luigi Calabresi,
on humanitarian grounds.
Minister of Justice Roberto Castelli,
believing it was a choice falling within
his powers to steer judicial policy, re-
fused to sign off on the pardon.
The Constitutional Court ruled in
favour of President Ciampi, stating
that pardoning power – because the
pardon was granted on humanitarian
grounds, which does not fall within the
powers of the executive – was indeed
one of the exclusive prerogatives
of the President.

15. The President ensures and checks in advance whether or not
government acts are constitutional. In this case, the President does not
examine the political content of the acts issued by the Government, but
ratheronlyassesseswhetherornottheyareinlinewiththeprocedures
laid down in the Constitution. Among these are the acts that define the
legislative power of the Government, such as law decrees (Art. 72
Cost.) and legislative decrees (Art. 77 Cost.).
If the Head of State finds that a Government act is unconstitutional,
he may decide not to immediately issue the act and, in confidence,
suggest that the executive amend it. In some cases, he may also decide
to stop the process altogether.
In 2009 the Berlusconi Government issued a law decree
suspending the execution of judgment in the Eluana Englaro
case. President Napolitano decided not to sign off on the act
deeming it unconstitutional: an emergency decree cannot be
used to prevent the execution of a court judgment.
FORMAL ACTS OF THE PRESIDENT THAT ARE
SUBSTANTIALLY ACTS OF THE GOVERNMENT

16. Dual acts must be an expression of the shared will of both the
proposing Minister and the Head of State. However, there are
different interpretations on this matter. For example, there are two
different stances on the power to appoint Ministers:
it is the power of the Head of the Government (Prime Minister): he
is the one who proposes Minsters and the President of the Republic
mayonlyexecutethisdecision,restrictinghimselftosimplyverifying
whether or not it is constitutional;
it is a dual act: in this decision-making process, the President of the
Republic and the Prime Minister agree as to which Ministers are
selected to be part of the Government. The President must also be
able to assess the future political and institutional direction of the
country.
This debate recently came up when President Sergio Mattarella
refused to sign off on the appointment of Prof. Paolo Savona as
Minister of the Economy.
DUAL ACTS: THE REAL PROBLEM

17. Savona’s economic policy positions on the Eurozone are what
led President Mattarella to reject his appointment as Minister of the
Economy. In the ensuing debate, two opposing stances emerged:
the President overstepped the limits of his powers by judging the
merit of a lawful political appointment and by steering the political
direction of the country, which under the Italian Constitution are
powers attributed to the Government and the Parliament, not to the
Head of State;
when Ministers are appointed, the President does not merely write
upthelistofthePrimeMinister’sappointees.Rather,heparticipates
in this decision by providing his assessment of the overall orientation
of the executive: in fact, it is his job to ensure Italy complies with its
international obligations, such as its membership of the Eurozone
(which was not called into question in the electoral agendas of any
of the political forces).
THE CASE OF PROFESSOR SAVONA

18. MORAL SUASION
This is the intrinsic power of
the President of the Republic:
not expressly provided for
by law but well-established
in constitutional procedure:
it is not exercised using
legal means, but rather
through public or private
actions directed at the po-
litical-institutional system;
the President usually intervenes
during institutional crises and
political deadlock, but also during
the ordinary everyday business of
the constitutional bodies;
becauseoftheprestigeandauthor-
ity that come from holding the high-
estinstitutionaloffice,thePresident’s
opinions, judgements, proposals,
advice and guidance – which have
no legal effect whatsoever – carry
a great deal of weight at the political
level.

19. TheHeadofState’sinfluenceoverthefunctioningoftheconstitutional
bodiestendstoexpand andcarrymoreweightwhenthepoliticalsystem
is at its weakest. However, his influence narrows when political power
is stronger and more stable.
This is a so-called “broad interpretation” of the presidential powers
of the Head of State.
THE “ACCORDION” POWER

20. One of the most recent cases was in 2013, when the Enrico Letta
Government was being formed. President of the Republic Giorgio
Napolitano, the first President in Italian history to be re-elected for a
second term, agreed to run again on the condition that the relative
majority parties in Parliament, after long and unsuccessful negotiations,
overcome their differences and form a coalition government.
Another essential factor is the personality of the Head of State, as
sometimes he is more apt to speak out and participate in public debate
and other times more inclined toward mediation and confidentiality.
THE “ACCORDION” POWER: AN EXAMPLE

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