News Analysis: Mattarella could oversee evolution in role of Italian presidency

The election of an unassuming former minister and judge as Italy's new president could help usher in a new level of importance for what is seen as a largely symbolic office.

Sergio Mattarella, 73, was sworn in as Italy's 12th president on Tuesday, three days after being elected by a collection of more than 1,000 lawmakers and regional government representatives.

The low-profile Sicilian has mostly stayed away from the spotlight despite a nearly 30-year public service career that has included a stint as deputy prime minister, as the head of three different ministries, and as a justice on Italy's highest court.

Mattarella's latest role, as Italy's head of state, is his most important yet.

Historically speaking, Italy's president has filled a largely symbolic role except in periods of political crisis, when he has the power to dissolve parliament, call elections and appoint a new prime minister.

Giorgio Napolitano, Mattarella's predecessor who took over as president in 2006 and stayed in office until stepping down last month, had a relatively uneventful tenure early in his mandate, when Berlusconi was prime minister with a strong parliamentary majority behind him.

But when Berlusconi was forced to resign amid scandal in 2011, Napolitano stepped up and skillfully guided the country through a technocrat government headed by former European Commissioner Mario Monti, a political void after inconclusive elections, the short-lived government of Enrico Letta, and then a power struggle that saw Matteo Renzi emerge as prime minister a year ago.

Over that span, the 89-year-old Napolitano, who stepped down in January due to his age, saw his power and influence grow, not only as a kind of mediator but also by providing gravitas to a government led by a 39-year-old former mayor who was little known outside Italy when he became prime minister.

"The role of the president is flexible in Italy," Alessandro Campi, director of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) and a political science expert with the University of Perugia.

"He is an arbiter when needed, and it can be a tranquil role when things are tranquil. In the final years of Napolitano's presidency, he had an increasingly essential role to play," said the expert.

Now, because of Renzi's reform-minded agenda, Mattarella could continue that trend.

"Since the 1990s, the trend is for the president to gain power and influence," Mattia Guidi, a political scientist with LUISS University in Rome, told Xinhua. "In times of crisis, the role is more relevant. But other circumstances can play a role as well."

Some of those circumstances may involve Renzi's reform plans, which include a change to the electoral law and to the scope and makeup of the Senate, parliament's upper house. Those changes would strengthen the prime minister's office at the expense of parliament, which some expert observers say could increase the role of the president as a counter-weight.

If the reforms fail, it could spark a political crisis that would force Mattarella to step in his role as an arbiter.

"Mattarella is quiet by nature, but it will be difficult for him to avoid flexing his political muscle over the coming months, regardless of how the reform agenda plays out," Gian Franco Gallo, a political affairs expert with ABS Securities, said in an interview.

"Traditionally, the first year of a new president's mandate is relatively easy. Don't be surprised if that's not the case this time," said the expert. Endit