Senators for life in Italy () are members of the
Italian Senate who are either appointed, limited in number up to five, by the
Italian president "for outstanding patriotic merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field" or are former presidents and thus senators for life ''
ex officio''.
Every president of the Italian Republic has made at least one appointment of a senator for life, with the exception of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (since in his term there were more than five). President
Giorgio Napolitano appointed Professor
Mario Monti on 9 November 2011 and conductor
Claudio Abbado, researcher
Elena Cattaneo, architect
Renzo Piano and Nobel-laureate physicist
Carlo Rubbia on 30 August 2013. The president who appointed the highest number of senators for life was
Luigi Einaudi, who made eight appointments during his term.
Senators for life can decide not to be part of any parliamentary group, as opposed to elected senators who, if not affiliated with any specific political movement, automatically become members of the
Mixed Group.
Limitations
The Italian Constitution provides that the president of the republic may appoint up to five senators for life. Until 2020 it was debated whether five was intended to be the maximum overall number of senators for life, or if each president had the ability to appoint up to five senators regardless of how many had been appointed by their predecessor and were still living. Until 1984 the former interpretation enjoyed the support of a majority of scholars. In that year, however, President
Sandro Pertini applied the latter interpretation. Pertini's successors applied varying standards.
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro appointed none, in deference to the stricter reading, while both
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (; 9 December 1920 – 16 September 2016) was an Italian politician, statesman and banker who was the President of Italy from 1999 to 2006 and the Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994.
A World War II veteran, C ...
and
Giorgio Napolitano appointed five each.
Eventually, the
2020 constitutional reform ended the debate by establishing unambiguously a limit of five overall appointed senators.
List of senators for life
Gallery of current senators for life
Mario Monti datisenato 2011.jpg, Mario Monti
(age )
Elena Cattaneo datisenato 2018.jpg, Elena Cattaneo
(age )
Renzo Piano senato.jpg, Renzo Piano
(age )
Carlo Rubbia senato.jpg, Carlo Rubbia
(age )
Liliana Segre (XVIII Legislatura Senato).jpg , Liliana Segre
(age )
External links
Senato.it: Senatori a vita{{in lang, it