Profile: New Italian President Sergio Mattarella

Sergio Mattarella, a lawyer and Constitutional Court judge, on Saturday was elected as the new Italian president at the fourth round of voting following days of consultations among political parties.

Mattarella, the sole candidate advanced by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his center-left Democratic Party (PD), was elected as Italy's 12th president with 665 votes out of an assembly of 1,009 lawmakers and regional representatives.

Mattarella was born in Palermo, the capital city of island region Sicily, 73 years ago into a Catholic family with political background.

His father served various times as a government minister of the Christian Democrat (DC) party, which dominated post-war Italy until a series of corruption scandals led to its collapse in the 1990s.

His brother was killed by the mafia because of his fight against criminal organizations and corruption while he was serving as regional president of Sicily.

It was after his brother's murder that Mattarella, then a professor of parliamentary law at the University of Palermo, decided to go in for politics.

He was first elected to the House of Deputies, or lower chamber, in 1983 as a left-leaning member of the DC and in 1987 he served as minister of parliamentary affairs.

In 1989, Mattarella was named education minister in the government of seven-time prime minister Giulio Andreotti.

He quit the post a year later over the introduction of a law which liberalized the world of media and was said to significantly advantage the media empire of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Mattarella later joined the political forces which were the precursors to today's PD.

In 1998, he became vice-premier under the government of Massimo D'Alema and a year later was named defense minister. He brought important changes, including an end to conscription, to Italy's military system.

In 2011, Mattarella was elected by the Italian parliament as a judge of the Constitutional Court.

On Thursday, Renzi announced that his lawmakers and regional representatives taking part in the presidential election would back Mattarella. The PD also gained support from other minor parties.

Renzi defined Mattarella as a "decent politician" and "a man of legality, of the fight against mafias and of politics with a capital P."

Local commentators said Mattarella has a reputation for integrity and is unusually restrained for an Italian public figure, with few press appearances and no profile on social networks.

Mattarella will be sworn in at the beginning of next week to replace Giorgio Napolitano, 89, who resigned earlier this month before the natural end of his second tenure, saying he could not underestimate the signs of fatigue of his age. Endit