Mattarella bis, it is the day of the oath: waiting for the speech to the Chambers in joint session

ROME. A few more hours and then Sergio Mattarella will succeed himself. The President of the Republic, elected last Saturday by Parliament in joint session with a very broad consensus after a week of blank ballots, will enter the Chamber at 15.30 to swear on the Constitution. From that moment (re) he will be formally Head of State, after having received the communication of the election from the presidents of the Chamber and Senate. The Chambers are also convened in joint session for the oath, but this year the rules for entrances will be governed by compliance with the rules on the pandemic: all 1009 electors will be able to attend in the Chamber (deputies and senators in the hemicycle, the 58 regional delegates from the stands) but only the intervention of the new President of the Republic is foreseen, with an estimated maximum time of 40-50 minutes.

The hopes of Italians in a phase of exiting the pandemic, the central role of Parliament on the domestic front, the Ukrainian crisis and the weight of Italy in the new Europe on the international front. Mattarella’s settlement speech will unfold on these two strands. A speech of about twenty minutes, for which there is a lot of anticipation, because it will help to understand what will be the register with which the president intends to interpret his second seven years. Elected last Saturday with 759 votes, second most voted after Sandro Pertini, Mattarella immediately received thousands of messages from citizens and dozens of messages from heads of state from all over the world.

What the re-elected president will face

What opens up for Sergio Mattarella will be a challenging seven years. The commitments that the country must face and the fibrillations of politics are problems that do not escape the radar of the Colle. The Head of State has no executive powers, his role is the guarantor of the Constitution, but his moral suasion has always been a very strong element in crucial moments, as well as international relations consolidated in recent years. In the main political-institutional steps that Italy will have to face in the coming years, the tenant of the Colle will necessarily be a point of reference over the course of three legislatures.

Already the first months of the seven-year period will see the government committed to achieving the objectives that should lead to 24.1 billion in June for Brussels. A tour de force for ministries, parliament and local administrations. Then again 55 goals to collect 21.8 billion in December 2022, 27 goals for 18.4 billion in June 2023 and so up to 2026. But while the executive will be engaged in the implementation of the NRP, the parties will be grappling with the spring administrative elections and, if they pass, also with the referendums on justice, euthanasia, soft drugs.

In the administrative rounds, votes will be taken in twenty-three provincial capitals, and in particular in Genoa, Palermo, Catanzaro, L’Aquila, Verona, Parma and Padua. Then in the autumn there will be a vote in the regional elections in Sicily. Meanwhile, in Europe, France will be called to presidential elections: on 10 April Emmanuel Macron, who signed the “Quirinale Treaty” with Mario Draghi under the eyes of Mattarella, will play for reconfirmation and also Orban’s Hungary, in addition to Sweden and Slovenia, will be called to a vote that will be decisive for the future balance in Brussels. Internal and international balances to which Mattarella looks carefully. And that will be at the heart of his agenda for the next few years.

The ceremony with the anti-Covid rules
The swearing-in ceremony has been running for over seventy years of ceremonial, but the exceptional nature of the encore and the anti-Covid rules will change the procedures a bit. Around 3 pm the Secretary General of the Chamber will go to the Quirinale to accompany Mattarella to Montecitorio with an escort of motorcyclist Carabinieri. The new president will arrive at Montecitorio while the bells of the building ring, will enter the courtroom, will swear in the hands of the President of the Chamber and then will deliver a speech that is considered indicative of the guidelines to which he intends to inspire his seven-year term.

Once the oath is over, the Montecitorio bell will ring again in full extension and 21 salvoes will be fired from the Gianicolo cannon. At this point, the new President will be “taken over” by the Quirinal ceremonial. In Piazza Montecitorio he will listen to the performance of the national anthem, will review the squad of honor and, accompanied by the Prime Minister, will pay homage to the unknown soldier at the Altare della Patria, while the Roman sky will be crossed by the tricolor arrows.

Escorted by Corazzieri on horseback, aboard the presidential Lancia Flaminia, Mattarella will travel to the Quirinale. The presidential banner will be hoisted on the Torrino next to the Italian and European flags, a banner lowered when the President leaves the Palace a few hours earlier.

The resignation (rejected) of the Prime Minister
Once the military honors have been received in the courtyard of honor of the palace, in the Tapestry room of Lille, the President will greet the high officials of the state with a short speech. In consideration of the pandemic, the number of people admitted to the meeting will be reduced and journalists will be able to follow the event that will take place at the Quirinale through the live broadcast of Rai Uno or streaming on the Quirinale website. At the end of the ceremony, the Prime Minister will resign, as usual, and, again as usual, they will be rejected. After the inauguration ceremonies, the thirteenth President will be in office for his term.