Exactly six years ago Sergio Mattarella was elected President of the Republic: it was 31 January 2015, and the Head of State, chosen by Parliament in joint session with 665 votes (just under two thirds of the elective assembly), was sworn in and effectively took office at the Quirinale a few days later, the following 3 February. So today, barring surprises and possible re-election, begins the last year at Colle for Mattarella, who will turn 80 this year and who is the first Sicilian to have held this office: in a year a new president will be elected and for this reason in the second part of 2021 we will enter the blank semester, i.e. in the period of time in which it is not possible for a Head of State to dissolve the Chambers and call elections. This aspect is linked directly to the news of recent days, which have seen Mattarella engaged in consultations for the formation of a new government majority: precisely the proximity of the blank semester seems to exclude the hypothesis of returning to the polls immediately after the Conte bis crisis .
At the end of his mandate, Mattarella will become a senator for life, as already happened for his predecessors including the last one, Giorgio Napolitano, whose resignation in January 2015 gave rise to the candidacy of the ex exponent of the Christian Democrats. Born in Palermo on 23 July 1941, Mattarella was not only a politician but also a lawyer and university professor: from 1983 to 2008 he was a deputy, first for Christian Democracy (of which he was deputy secretary) and then for the Italian People's Party, the Margherita and the Democratic Party. He held the position of Minister for Relations with Parliament (1987-1989), Minister of Education (1989-1990), Deputy Prime Minister (1998-1999), Minister of Defense (1999-2001) and finally as constitutional judge (2011-2015). As Head of State he has so far conferred the office on two presidents of the Council of Ministers: Paolo Gentiloni (2016-2018) and Giuseppe Conte (in 2018 and perhaps again in a few days).
He also named a life senator, Liliana Segre, on 19 January 2018, and two judges of the Constitutional Court: Francesco Viganò, on 24 February 2018, and Emanuela Navarretta, on 9 September 2020. In his long political experience he has also linked his name to the reform of the 1993 electoral law, called in fact Mattarellum: introduced in Italy, for the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, a mixed electoral system with a single-round majority system for the distribution of 75% of parliamentary seats; proportional recovery of the most voted not elected to the Senate through a calculation mechanism called "spin-off" for the remaining 25% of the seats assigned to the Senate; proportional with blocked lists for the remaining 25% of the seats assigned to the Chamber; 4% barrier in the Chamber. The law regulated the elections until those of 2001, only to be repealed in 2005 and replaced by the "Porcellum" of Calderoli.
