Who abuses the Quirinale?
I would advise those who have used and are using Mattarella's well-deserved popularity to get rid of the ghost of presidentialism not to exaggerate… I Graffi di Damato
The popularity that Sergio Mattarella has managed to gain at the Quirinale has certainly contributed to the weakening of the favor that presidentialism had until a few years ago, understood as the direct election of the head of state. Her "absorbing and adhesive composure", as Giuliano Ferrara has just defined it in the Foglio , has ticked off Giorgia Meloni, who hijacked herself amid the amazement and even the irritation of the Northern League ally Matteo Salvini towards the premiership , understood as Prime Minister elected by the citizens, leaving the President of the Republic with indirect elections by the Chambers and a delegation from the Regional Councils.
“In our country's experience, the role of arbiter of the President of the Republic has often been decisive. Limiting it would be wrong,” former Speaker of the Chamber Luciano Violante told Annalisa Chirico, also from Foglio . Even if, in truth, the direct election was also intended to enhance that role, increase the number and tone of whistles against unfair players, to the point of disbanding teams more easily and sending them to the locker rooms, ie to the polls.
THE POPULARITY OF MATTARELLA
With a certain annoyance, the vice president of the Senate Maurizio Gasparri told the press that "the left wants to get across the idea that whoever is presidential is against Mattarella, but that's not the case, no one is against Mattarella". To protect which, in fact, in Meloni's original intentions there was the reservation of having the citizens choose the successor of the current president only at the end of his mandate. Which is the second for a total of 14 years: perhaps not even how long will the reign of the newly crowned Charles III of England last.
It must also be said in defense of the excellent reputation earned by the current head of state – except for criticisms, attacks and insolences addressed to him from time to time by Fatto Quotidiano , which does not forgive him for having wanted to replace Giuseppe Conte at Palazzo Chigi with Mario Draghi at the time – that presidentialism has grown in popularity or fascination in recent years not due to distrust of the current presidents but out of dissent from the method with which the Chambers, and the parties behind them, chose it, and choose it: without discipline, for example, of the candidacies , as if the president was born from the cabbage told to children or chosen by the Holy Spirit like the Pope through the Cardinals at the Conclave.
Having written all this, and acknowledging that "the Colle cannot be touched", as Minister Casellati announced to the press , I would advise those who have used and are using Mattarella's well-deserved popularity to get rid of the ghost of presidentialism not to exaggerate by attributing to him Mattarella more or less explicitly a certain hostility to the reform of a Constitution that would continue to be "the most beautiful in the world". Wishes for constitutional reforms are in fact found in both swearing-in messages from the incumbent President.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/quirinale-mattarella-presidenzialismo/ on Thu, 11 May 2023 05:44:26 +0000.