Senators for life in Italy

Senators for life in Italy (Italian: senatori a vita) are members of the Italian Senate who are either appointed, limited in number up to five, by the Italian president "for outstanding patriotic merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field" or are former presidents and thus senators for life ex officio.

Every president of the Italian Republic has made at least one appointment of a senator for life, with the exception of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (since in his term there were more than five). President Giorgio Napolitano appointed Professor Mario Monti on 9 November 2011 and conductor Claudio Abbado, researcher Elena Cattaneo, architect Renzo Piano and Nobel-laureate physicist Carlo Rubbia on 30 August 2013. The president who appointed the highest number of senators for life was Luigi Einaudi, who made eight appointments during his term.

Senators for life can decide not to be part of any parliamentary group, as opposed to elected senators who, if not affiliated with any specific political movement, automatically become members of the Mixed Group.

Limitations

The Italian Constitution provides that the president of the republic may appoint up to five senators for life. This resulted in a debate whether five was intended to be the maximum overall number of senators for life, or if each president had the ability to appoint up to five senators, regardless of how many had been appointed by their predecessor and were still living. The former interpretation enjoyed the support of a majority of scholars until 1984, when President Sandro Pertini applied the latter interpretation. Pertini's successors applied varying standards. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro appointed none, in deference to the stricter reading, while both Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Giorgio Napolitano appointed five each. The 2020 constitutional reform ended the debate by establishing unambiguously a limit of five overall appointed senators.^{[citation needed]}

List of senators for life

Currently serving

Senator	Known for	Date of appointment	Appointed by	End of appointment (reason)	Length of appointment
Enrico De Nicola	President (1946–1948)	12 May 1948	ex officio	1 October 1959 (death)	11 years, 142 days
Guido Castelnuovo	Mathematician	5 December 1949	Luigi Einaudi	27 April 1952 (death)	2 years, 144 days
Arturo Toscanini	Conductor	5 December 1949	Luigi Einaudi	7 December 1949 (resignation)	2 days
Pietro Canonica	Sculptor, painter and conductor	1 December 1950	Luigi Einaudi	8 June 1959 (death)	8 years, 189 days
Gaetano De Sanctis	Historian	1 December 1950	Luigi Einaudi	9 April 1957 (death)	6 years, 129 days
Pasquale Jannaccone	Economist	1 December 1950	Luigi Einaudi	22 December 1959 (death)	9 years, 21 days
Carlo Alberto Salustri	Poet	1 December 1950	Luigi Einaudi	21 December 1950 (death)	20 days
Luigi Sturzo	Priest	17 September 1952	Luigi Einaudi	8 August 1959 (death)	6 years, 325 days
Umberto Zanotti Bianco	Archeologist	17 September 1952	Luigi Einaudi	28 August 1963 (death)	10 years, 345 days
Luigi Einaudi	President (1948–1955)	11 May 1955	ex officio	30 October 1961 (death)	6 years, 172 days
Giuseppe Paratore	Politician and attorney	9 November 1957	Giovanni Gronchi	26 February 1967 (death)	9 years, 109 days
Giovanni Gronchi	President (1955–1962)	11 May 1962	ex officio	17 October 1978 (death)	16 years, 159 days
Cesare Merzagora	Politician	2 March 1963	Antonio Segni	1 May 1991 (death)	28 years, 60 days
Ferruccio Parri	Prime Minister (1945)	2 March 1963	Antonio Segni	8 December 1981 (death)	18 years, 281 days
Meuccio Ruini	Politician	2 March 1963	Antonio Segni	6 March 1970 (death)	7 years, 4 days
Antonio Segni	President (1962–1964)	6 December 1964	ex officio	1 December 1972 (death)	7 years, 361 days
Vittorio Valletta	Industrialist	28 November 1966	Giuseppe Saragat	10 August 1967 (death)	255 days
Eugenio Montale	Poet and prose writer	13 June 1967	Giuseppe Saragat	12 September 1981 (death)	14 years, 91 days
Giovanni Leone	Prime Minister (1963, 1968)	27 August 1967	Giuseppe Saragat	23 December 1971 (elected President)	4 years, 118 days
Giovanni Leone	President (1971–1978)	15 June 1978	ex officio	9 November 2001 (death)	23 years, 147 days
Pietro Nenni	Politician	25 November 1970	Giuseppe Saragat	1 January 1980 (death)	9 years, 37 days
Giuseppe Saragat	President (1964–1971)	29 December 1971	ex officio	11 June 1988 (death)	16 years, 165 days
Amintore Fanfani	Prime Minister (1954, 1958–1959, 1960–1963, 1982–1983, 1987)	10 March 1972	Giovanni Leone	20 November 1999 (death)	27 years, 255 days
Leo Valiani	Historian, politician and journalist	12 January 1980	Sandro Pertini	18 September 1999 (death)	19 years, 249 days
Eduardo De Filippo	Actor	28 September 1981	Sandro Pertini	31 October 1984 (death)	3 years, 33 days
Camilla Ravera	Politician	8 January 1982	Sandro Pertini	14 April 1988 (death)	5 years, 257 days
Carlo Bo	Poet	18 July 1984	Sandro Pertini	21 July 2001 (death)	17 years, 3 days
Norberto Bobbio	Philosopher	18 July 1984	Sandro Pertini	9 January 2004 (death)	19 years, 175 days
Sandro Pertini	President (1978–1985)	29 June 1985	ex officio	24 February 1990 (death)	4 years, 240 days
Giovanni Spadolini	Prime Minister (1981–1982)	2 May 1991	Francesco Cossiga	4 August 1994 (death)	3 years, 94 days
Giovanni Agnelli	Industrialist	1 June 1991	Francesco Cossiga	24 January 2003 (death)	11 years, 237 days
Giulio Andreotti	Prime Minister (1972–1973, 1976–1979, 1989–1992)	1 June 1991	Francesco Cossiga	6 May 2013 (death)	21 years, 339 days
Francesco De Martino	Politician	1 June 1991	Francesco Cossiga	18 November 2002 (death)	11 years, 170 days
Paolo Emilio Taviani	Politician	1 June 1991	Francesco Cossiga	18 June 2001 (death)	10 years, 17 days
Francesco Cossiga	President (1985–1992)	28 April 1992	ex officio	17 August 2010 (death)	18 years, 111 days
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro	President (1992–1999)	16 May 1999	ex officio	29 January 2012 (death)	12 years, 258 days
Rita Levi-Montalcini	Neurologist	1 August 2001	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi	30 December 2012 (death)	11 years, 151 days
Emilio Colombo	Prime Minister (1970–1972)	14 January 2003	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi	24 June 2013 (death)	10 years, 161 days
Mario Luzi	Poet	14 October 2004	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi	28 February 2005 (death)	137 days
Giorgio Napolitano	Politician	23 September 2005	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi	15 May 2006 (elected President)	235 days
Giorgio Napolitano	President (2006–2015)	14 January 2015	ex officio	22 September 2023 (death)	8 years, 251 days
Sergio Pininfarina	Designer and politician	23 September 2005	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi	3 July 2012 (death)	6 years, 284 days
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi	Economist and politician; Prime Minister (1993–1994); President (1999–2006)	16 May 2006	ex officio	16 September 2016 (death)	10 years, 123 days
Mario Monti	Economist and politician; Prime Minister (2011–2013)	9 November 2011	Giorgio Napolitano	currently serving	14 years, 10 days
Claudio Abbado	Conductor	30 August 2013	Giorgio Napolitano	20 January 2014 (death)	143 days
Elena Cattaneo	Scientist	30 August 2013	Giorgio Napolitano	currently serving	12 years, 81 days
Renzo Piano	Architect	30 August 2013	Giorgio Napolitano	currently serving	12 years, 81 days
Carlo Rubbia	Physicist	30 August 2013	Giorgio Napolitano	currently serving	12 years, 81 days
Liliana Segre	Holocaust survivor and activist	19 January 2018	Sergio Mattarella	currently serving	7 years, 304 days