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. Until 2020 it was debated 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. Until 1984 the former interpretation enjoyed the support of a majority of scholars. In that year, however, 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.

Eventually, the 2020 constitutional reform ended the debate by establishing unambiguously a limit of five overall appointed senators.

List of senators for life

Currently serving

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