Italy gets ‘odd couple’ leadership as Sergio Mattarella becomes president

• 44 minutes ago February 01, 2015 4:21AM

‘Not a selfie guy’ ... newly elected President of Italy, Sicilian judge Sergio Mattarella is described as shy, placid and retiring from the limelight. Picture: Tiziana Fabi Source: AFP

ITALY’S new president is Sergio Mattarella, a Christian Democrat (DC) veteran with a reputation for moral rectitude and unflappability, who will form an odd power couple with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Whereas Renzi is seen as brash, loud and youthful — giving high-fives and posing for pictures with the public as he walks the streets — the 73-year-old Mattarella is described as shy, placid and retiring from the limelight.
“He’s definitely not a ‘selfies’ man,” said Rosy Bindi, a politician from Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) who shares Mattarella’s DC roots and used to sit next to him in parliament in the early 1990s.

Newly elected president ... Sicilian judge Sergio Mattarella (left) with Lower chamber president Laura Boldrini at the Constitutional Council in Rome. Picture: AFP/ Filippa Monteforte Source: AFP

Unlike his predecessor Giorgio Napolitano, who had a privileged partnership with US President Barack Obama and other world leaders, Mattarella has little international recognition, and is not well versed in foreign languages.
“I respect him, but I would not have picked him,” said Antonio Martino, a grandee from the Forza Italia of former premier Silvio Berlusconi.
“He does not have any foreign policy skills, and we need someone who can talk to foreign leaders.”
Pietro Ichino, a PD senator, said Mr Mattarella is going to be a low-key president, staying faithful to his role of guardian of the constitution, but shying away from meddling in everyday politics.

Change of pace ... politicians applaud the election of Italy's new President Sergio Mattarella, at the end of a voting session in Rome. Picture: AP/Andrew Medichini Source: AP

But several people who dealt with him over the years warn against considering the new head of state a pushover.
“The man may be quiet but he has character, he will not be simply a ceremonial head of state, like you have in Germany,” Rocco Buttiglione, a former political rival and conservative deputy, said.
La Repubblica newspaper has profiled the president as “The grey man who knows how to say ‘no’,” while Il Giornale, another daily, described him as a “shy and frosty character, not inclined to smiling”.
“Does he have a sense of humour? I would not call it his forte,” Luigi Cocilovo, a DC figure from Sicily and former European Parliament member who has known the president for decades said with a chuckle.
Mr Mattarella is famous for never losing his temper.

Brash ... Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is seen as loud and youthful, giving high-fives and posing for pictures with the public as he walks the streets. Picture: AP /Michel Euler Source: AP

Gian Antonio Stella, a political sketchwriter for Corriere della Sera, once wrote that the only thing he does when upset is raise one eyebrow.
Mr Cocilovo adds: “He does not have it in his bones to be irascible.”
Yet, behind the mild manners, there lies a man of steely convictions.
Born in Palermo in 1941, Mr Mattarella’s top political office prior to the presidency was serving as deputy prime minister in 1998-1999.
He sat in parliament from 1983 to 2008, and has been a constitutional court judge since 2011.
He hails from a family of politicians. His father Bernardo was one of the 556 MPs who drafted Italy’s post-war constitution, and served in government several times.
Piersanti, his older brother, was killed by the Mafia in 1980, while he was governor of Sicily.
After that tragedy, Mr Mattarella reluctantly left a university career in law and entered politics to keep the family tradition alive.
In Palermo, he oversaw a clean-up process that led to the appointment of the city’s first openly anti-Mafia administration in 1985.