by Eric J. Lyman
ROME, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Sergio Mattarella, Italy's professorial and often subdued head of state, is the central player in what might be Italy's most serious political crisis since the fall of fascism during the World War II.
The 76-year-old Mattarella was a member of parliament for 25 years and has held three different minister posts, was deputy prime minister, and served as a judge on Italy's Constitutional Court. But he was still a little-known figure for most rank-and-file Italians when he succeeded Giorgio Napolitano as the country's 12th president in 2015.
"In a way he was preparing for this role his entire life, a strong figure of quiet competence," Riccardo Ferrigato, author of a well-received 2015 biography of Mattarella, told Xinhua.
Mattarella has never had a higher profile than in recent days, since he has been in the center of a more-than-12-week political stalemate after the country's March 4 general election.
Mattarella gave an OK to the populist Five-Star Movement and the nationalist League to form a government but then blocked their choice for prime minister, law professor Giuseppe Conte, over a controversial choice as finance minister.
Mattarella then named former International Monetary Fund economist Carlo Cottarelli to head a technocrat government.
Now that it appears Cottarelli will fall short of gaining the support of a majority of parliamentarians, Mattarella is left mulling over flawed options. Should he install Cottarelli despite a lack of parliamentary support? Should he give the Five-Star Movement and the League another chance? Should he call for new elections?
"These specific problems are unique, but it is not uncommon to have a scenario where the president keeps a low profile and stays behind the scenes until there is a crisis and he is forced to rise to the occasion," Riccardo Puglisi, a political economist with Italy's University of Pavia, said in an interview, "Mattarella has risen to the occasion."
Mattarella got a late start in politics, first getting involved only in his 40s after the death of his older brother, Piersanti Mattarella, who had been president of the regional government of Sicily and was killed in a Palermo Mafia hit in 1980.
The younger Mattarella ran for parliament for the first time in 1983, and during his 25-year parliamentary career he also served as minister of parliamentary relations (1987-89), minister of education (1989-90), deputy prime minister (1998-99), and minister of defense (1999-2001). He was a judge on the Constitutional Court for more than three years, ending in 2015, when he assumed the presidency.
"There is an interesting parallel in that Mattarella has always been someone who played by the rules, and now the rules he is playing by are rules he helped write following the political corruption scandals of the early 1990s," said Ferrigato, the biographer. "The rules require more consensus and have more safeguards to help prevent corruption. But, now, that is making things harder for him since the Five-Star Movement and the League are suspicious of him."
One reason the anti-establishment parties are wary of Mattarella, according to Ferrigato, Puglisi, and others, is because Mattarella was elected during the administration of former center-left prime minister Matteo Renzi. Renzi's Democratic Party is now the leading opposition party. The Five-Star Movement has even threatened to impeach Mattarella, though it seems unlikely that will happen.
Ferrigato noted that Mattarella is one of the last remaining Italian political leaders who came of age under the influence of iconic center-left politician Aldo Moro, one of Italy's most influential politicians who was kidnapped and murdered 40 years ago.
Another factor, according to Oreste Massari, a political scientist with Rome's La Sapienza University, is a simple clash of styles.
"Mattarella is an institution, and old-style politician," Massari told Xinhua. "It is no surprise he will not be the president of choice for two parties who see themselves as fighting against the establishment."