“President of Italy”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The President of the Italian Republic ({{lang-it|Presidente della Repubblica Italiana}}) is the head of state of Italy and in that role represents national unity and guarantees that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The President's term of office lasts for seven years.^[2] The 11th President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, was elected on 10 May 2006 and elected to a second term for the first time in Italian Republic history on 20 April 2013. Following Napolitano's resignation, the incumbent President, former Constitutional judge Sergio Mattarella, was elected at the fourth ballot with 665 votes out of 1,009 on 31 January 2015.

Qualifications for office

The framers of the Constitution of Italy intended for the president to be an elder statesman of some stature. Article 84^[2] states that any citizen who is fifty or older on election day and enjoys civil and political rights can be elected president. The article also states that the presidency is incompatible with any other office, therefore the president-elect must resign any other position before being sworn in.

The 1948 Constitution does not put any term limit on the presidency,^[2] although until 2013 no President ever ran for a second term. On 20 April 2013, President Giorgio Napolitano agreed to run for a second term in an attempt to break the parliamentary deadlock in the 2013 presidential elections and was duly re-elected that same day.^[3] However, he made it clear that he would not serve his full term and retired in January 2015.

Election

The President of the Republic is elected by an electoral college comprising the two chambers of Parliament—the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic—meeting in joint session, combined with 58 special electors appointed from the 20 regions of Italy. Three representatives come from each region, save for the Aosta Valley, which appoints one so as to guarantee representation for all localities and minorities.

According to the Constitution, the election must be held by a secret ballot, with the 315 Senators, the 630 Deputies and the 58 regional representatives all voting. A two-thirds vote is required to elect on any of the first three rounds of balloting and after that a simple majority suffices. The number of rounds has often been large thanks to the secret ballot and fragmented nature of the Italian Parliament^[4] The election is presided over by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, who calls for the public counting of the votes. The vote is held in Palazzo Montecitorio, seat of the Chamber of Deputies, which is expanded and re-configured for the event.

The President assumes office after taking an oath before Parliament and delivering a presidential address.

Presidential mandate

The President’s term lasts seven years and this prevents any President from being reelected by the same Houses, which have a five-year mandate, also granting some freedom from excessive political ties to the appointing body. The Italian President's term may end by voluntary resignation, death, permanent disability due to serious illness, or dismissal as for crimes of high treason or an attack on the Constitution.

Former Presidents of the Republic are called Presidents Emeritus of the Republic and are appointed Senator for life. In the absence of the President of the Republic, including travel abroad, presidential functions are performed by the President of the Senate.^[2]

Role

The Constitution lays out the duties and powers of the President of the Republic, to include the following:

In practice, the President's office is mostly—though not entirely—ceremonial. The Constitution provides that nearly all presidential acts must be countersigned by a member of the government (either the Prime Minister or an individual minister) as most presidential acts are only formal and real political responsibility is upon the government. Many of the others are duties that he is required to perform. However, pardons and commutations have been recognized as autonomous powers of the President.

Despite the seemingly ceremonial nature of the position the President's role still has important implications. His ability to send a piece of legislation back to Parliament is not taken lightly by legislators, who are unlikely to ignore it unless the legislation is critical.^[5] Moreover, in times of political instability the President has significant leeway in appointing Prime Ministers, such as when President Scalfaro appointed Lamberto Dini as Prime Minister against the wishes of outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi,^[5] or when President Napolitano appointed Enrico Letta in 2013.^[6]

This leeway extends even further to cabinet appointments, as in 2018 when President Matarella blocked the appointment of Paolo Savona to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the grounds that his Euroskeptic behavior would endanger Italy's relationship with the EU and that the President's role as constitutional guarantor required him to stop that from happening.^[7]

Succession

According to Article 86^[2] of the Constitution, in all the cases in which the president is unable to perform the functions of the office, these shall be performed by the President of the Senate, who would temporarily serve as acting president.

In the event of permanent incapacity, death or resignation of the president, the President of the Chamber of Deputies shall call an election of a new president within fifteen days, notwithstanding the longer term envisaged during the dissolution of the Parliament or in the three months preceding dissolution.

Residence

The president resides in Rome at the Quirinal Palace and also has at his disposal the presidential holdings of Castelporziano^[8], near Rome and Villa Rosebery in Naples^[9].

The President's residence at the Quirinal is guarded by the Corazzieri, an elite cuirassier honor guard that is part of the Carabinieri and has its historical roots in the guards of the House of Savoy^[10]

Timeline

Living former Presidents

See also

References

1. ^{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/roman-austerity-parliamentary-salary-cuts-a-drop-in-the-bucket-a-812474.html|date=2 February 2012|title=Roman Austerity: Parliamentary Salary Cuts a Drop in the Bucket|publisher=Spiegel Online International|language=it|newspaper=Spiegel Online|last1=MacBeth|first1=Alex}}
2. ^¹²³⁴{{cite web|title=The Italian Constitution|url=http://www.quirinale.it/page/costituzione|publisher=The official website of the Presidency of the Italian Republic.}}
3. ^{{cite news|title=President Giorgio Napolitano re-elected|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22232305|publisher=BBC News|date=2013-04-20}}
4. ^{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/437084143|title=The politics of Italy : governance in a normal country|last=James.|first=Newell,|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521840705|location=Cambridge, UK|oclc=437084143}}
5. ^¹{{Cite book|title=Politics in Europe.|last=Donald|first=Hancock, M.|isbn=9781452241463|edition=Sixth|location=Thousand Oaks, California|oclc=863193454|date = 2014-02-27}}
6. ^{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/world/europe/italy-prime-minister.html|title=Italian President Nominates New Prime Minister|last=Donadio|first=Rachel|date=2013-04-24|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-03-20|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}
7. ^{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/05/28/614910568/in-italy-populists-bid-to-form-government-fails-after-president-veto|title=In Italy, Populists' Bid To Form Government Fails After Presidential Veto|website=NPR.org|language=en|access-date=2019-03-20}}
8. ^{{Cite web|url=http://palazzo.quirinale.it/residenze/c_porziano_en.html|title=The residences: The Castelporziano Presidential Estate|last=web|first=Segretariato generale della Presidenza della Repubblica-Servizio sistemi informatici- reparto|website=Quirinale|language=en|access-date=2019-03-20}}
9. ^{{Cite web|url=http://palazzo.quirinale.it/residenze/v_rosebery_en.html|title=Villa Rosebery – The Park|last=web|first=Segretariato generale della Presidenza della Repubblica-Servizio sistemi informatici- reparto|website=Quirinale|language=en|access-date=2019-03-20}}
10. ^{{Cite web|url=http://palazzo.quirinale.it/corazzieri/corazzieri_en.html|title=the Italian Corps of Cuirassiers|last=web|first=Segretariato generale della Presidenza della Repubblica-Servizio sistemi informatici- reparto|website=Quirinale|language=en|access-date=2019-03-20}}