List of presidents of Italy

The president of Italy (Italian: Presidente della Repubblica) is the head of state of the Italian Republic. Since 1948, there have been 12 presidents of Italy.

• Top left: Enrico De Nicola was the first president of the Italian Republic.
• Top right: Antonio Segni was the first president to resign from office.
• Bottom left: Giorgio Napolitano was the first president to be re-elected.
• Bottom right: Sergio Mattarella is the current president of the Italian Republic and the longest-serving president in Italian history.

The official residence of the president is the Quirinal Palace in Rome. Among the Italian presidents, three came from Campania (all from Naples), three from Piedmont, two each from Sardinia (both from Sassari) and from Tuscany, one from Liguria, and one from Sicily. No woman has ever held the office.

Election

The president of the Republic is elected by Parliament in a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In addition, the 20 regions of Italy appoint 58 representatives as special electors. Three representatives come from each region, save for the small Aosta Valley which appoints one, so as to guarantee representation for all localities and minorities.

According to the Constitution, the election must be held in the form of secret ballot, with all senators, all 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 majority suffices. The election is presided over by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, who calls for the public counting of the votes. The vote is held in the Palazzo Montecitorio, home of the Chamber of Deputies, which is expanded and re-configured for the event.

The president assumes office after having taken an oath before Parliament and delivering a presidential address. Presidents are elected to serve a seven-year term. Giorgio Napolitano was the first president to be elected to a second term in 2013, followed by Sergio Mattarella in 2022.

Presidents of the Italian Republic (1948–present)

PLI       DC       PSDI       PSI       DS       Independent
Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Party		Election	Ref.
Took office	Left office
	Enrico De Nicola (1877–1959)	1 January 1948[a]	12 May 1948		Italian Liberal Party	1947	[1]
		132 days
	Luigi Einaudi (1874–1961)	12 May 1948	11 May 1955		Italian Liberal Party	1948	[2]
		6 years, 364 days
	Giovanni Gronchi (1887–1978)	11 May 1955	11 May 1962		Christian Democracy	1955	[3]
		7 years, 0 days
	Antonio Segni (1891–1972)	11 May 1962	6 December 1964[b]		Christian Democracy	1962	[4]
		2 years, 209 days
	Giuseppe Saragat (1898–1988)	29 December 1964	29 December 1971		Italian Democratic Socialist Party	1964	[5]
		7 years, 0 days
	Giovanni Leone (1908–2001)	29 December 1971	15 June 1978[c]		Christian Democracy	1971	[6]
		6 years, 168 days
	Sandro Pertini (1896–1990)	9 July 1978	29 June 1985[d]		Italian Socialist Party	1978	[7]
		6 years, 355 days
	Francesco Cossiga (1928–2010)	3 July 1985	28 April 1992[e]		Christian Democracy	1985	[8]
		6 years, 300 days
	Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (1918–2012)	28 May 1992	15 May 1999[d]		Christian Democracy[f]	1992	[9]
		6 years, 352 days
	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (1920–2016)	18 May 1999	15 May 2006[d]		Independent[g]	1999	[10]
		6 years, 362 days
	Giorgio Napolitano (1925–2023)	15 May 2006	14 January 2015[h]		Democrats of the Left / Independent[i]	2006 2013	[11]
		8 years, 244 days
	Sergio Mattarella (born 1941)	3 February 2015	Incumbent		Independent[j]	2015 2022	[12]
		10 years, 192 days

Timeline

Substitute of the head of state

The Acting President of the Republic (Italian: Presidente supplente della Repubblica) is an office not explicitly provided for in the Italian Constitution, but deriving from the provision contained in the article 86.^[13] On various occasions, officials had to intercede in the absence of a head of state (notably in the case of a president's resignation or ill health). Only Enrico De Nicola, who was elected to be provisional head of state by the Constitutional Assembly on 28 June 1946, had an official title and took residence in the Quirinal Palace.^[14] The others took the powers, but not the title of Head of State. After the adoption of the Italian Constitution in 1948, the president of the Senate is eligible to take the powers of head of state in case of absence of the President of the Republic.

DC       PLI       PRI       PPI       PD       Independent
Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Party		Election	Ref.
Took office	Left office
	Alcide De Gasperi (1881–1954)	13 June 1946	1 July 1946		Christian Democracy	—	[k]
		18 days
	Enrico De Nicola (1877–1959)	1 July 1946	31 December 1947		Italian Liberal Party	1946 1947	[l]
		1 year, 183 days
	Cesare Merzagora (1898–1991)	6 December 1964	29 December 1964		Independent	—	[m]
		23 days
	Amintore Fanfani (1908–1999)	15 June 1978	9 July 1978		Christian Democracy	—	[n]
		24 days
	Francesco Cossiga (1928–2010)	29 June 1985	3 July 1985		Christian Democracy	—	[o]
		4 days
	Giovanni Spadolini (1925–1994)	28 April 1992	28 May 1992		Italian Republican Party	—	[p]
		30 days
	Nicola Mancino (born 1931)	15 May 1999	18 May 1999		Italian People's Party	—	[q]
		3 days
	Pietro Grasso (born 1945)	14 January 2015	3 February 2015		Democratic Party	—	[r]
		20 days

See also

• Lists of office-holders
• King of Italy, for previous Italian heads of state between 1861 and 1946
• List of prime ministers of Italy
• Politics of Italy
• Prime Minister of Italy

Notes

1. De Nicola was already provisional head of state since 1 July 1946.
2. After suffering a serious cerebral hemorrhage, Segni resigned for health reasons, becoming the first president to do so.
3. After being involved in a bribery scandal, Leone resigned.
4. Resigned in order to bring forward the inauguration ceremony of the President-elect.
5. Cossiga resigned in order to favor the resolution of the political crisis after the 1992 general election.
6. Scalfaro left the Christian Democracy in 1992, when he was elected president. In 1994 the DC was disbanded and Scalfaro would never re-join a party.
7. Ciampi was a member of the Action Party, which was dissolved in 1947.
8. At 89 years old, Napolitano resigned due to age reasons.
9. Napolitano was a member of the Italian Communist Party, of the Democratic Party of the Left and of the Democrats of the Left until his election as President in 2006.
10. Mattarella was a member of the Christian Democracy, of the Italian People's Party, of The Daisy and of the Democratic Party, but he quit political commitment when he left the Parliament in 2008.
11. De Gasperi exercised the powers of provisional head of state as Prime Minister of Italy between the departure of King Umberto II on 13 June 1946 and the proclamation of Enrico De Nicola as head of state by the Constitutional Assembly on 1 July 1946.
12. De Nicola was the only provisional president who had the title and not only the powers of provisional head of state. He assumed the office on 1 July 1946 and officially became the president of the Republic on 1 January 1948 as ordered by the new Constitution.
13. Merzagora, as President of the Senate, assumed temporary powers for President Antonio Segni after his cerebral hemorrhage of 10 August 1964 and assumed full powers after his resignation of 6 December and until 29 December 1964.
14. Fanfani, as President of the Senate, assumed powers from President Giovanni Leone after his resignation for a bribery scandal on 15 June 1978. He exercised the powers until 9 July 1978.
15. Cossiga, as President of the Senate, assumed powers from President Sandro Pertini on 29 June 1985, just four days before taking office as President.
16. Spadolini, as President of the Senate, assumed powers from President Francesco Cossiga on 28 April 1992. He exercised the powers until 28 May 1992.
17. Mancino, as President of the Senate, assumed powers from President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro on 15 May 1999. He exercised the powers until 18 May 1999.
18. Grasso, as President of the Senate, assumed powers from President Giorgio Napolitano on 14 January 2015. He exercised the powers until 3 February 2015.