Best wishes to Mattarella on his 85th birthday

“I extend my sincere and warm birthday wishes to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. In his distinguished role as guardian of all Italians and authoritative leader of the institutions, President Mattarella represents a steadfast and indispensable point of reference for the nation. To him, my personal gratitude and that of the Senate of the Republic.” With these words, in a tweet on X, the President of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, was one of the first representatives of the institutions to send his birthday wishes to the longest-serving head of state in the history of the Republic.

Today Sergio Mattarella turns 85, and numerous figures from both the government and the opposition have publicly expressed their congratulations on the occasion. The prevailing sentiment in the messages, across social media and statements, is one of gratitude: “We can never be grateful enough for his service to the Republic and to its international standing. His words and actions are, and will remain, a benchmark for us all. And the affection the Italian people feel for him is the clearest and most evident proof of this,” said PD Secretary Elly Schlein. “Thank you for your extraordinary commitment to serving Italy,” reads a tweet from the Minister for Institutional Reforms, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, who describes Mattarella as “an authoritative interpreter of the highest values of our Republic”. And from the Minister for Health, Orazio Schillaci, comes “a sincere thank you for always being attentive to the needs of the National Health Service and to health issues”.

Many of the messages also focus on the sense of trust and stability conveyed by the President of the Republic, which makes Mattarella a welcome exception in the contemporary political landscape: according to the Istat report of October 2025, as many as 68.2 per cent of citizens trusted him, whilst political parties remained below 25 per cent and parliament reached a dismal 40.8 per cent. “His authoritative leadership and his level-headedness, especially during the most delicate and complex moments, serve as a point of reference for the country,” said Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. Tommaso Foti, Minister for European Affairs, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and Cohesion Policies, echoed this sentiment, describing Mattarella on social media as an “authoritative point of reference for the institutions and for all citizens”.

The sense of security referred to by the ministers is the same one that, in January 2022, led to Mattarella’s re-election with the highest number of votes since the days of Sandro Pertini, despite the fact that the Head of State had hinted on several occasions that he was not interested in a second term, to the extent that he had already organised his move to his home in Parioli. This stability has enabled the former Christian Democrat minister to remain firmly in place at the Quirinale throughout complex chapters of recent Italian history, from the troubled formation of the first Conte government – with its accompanying call for impeachment – through the Covid-19 pandemic and the arrival of Mario Draghi, right up to the current international crises.

Today, two years on from the end of that second term he did not want, Sergio Mattarella continues to prove himself a President of the Republic who is close to the people – as demonstrated by his visit to the flood victims in Emilia-Romagna in May 2023 and to those injured in Crans-Montana at the start of the year – but who also looks beyond Italy’s borders, as shown by his firm support for Ukraine’s defence. “Every day, he ensures that our country remains anchored to the values of the Constitution and Europeanism,” said Riccardo Magi, secretary of Più Europa, in his message of congratulations. This balanced approach allows Mattarella, as Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli writes in his statement, to represent “a solid bridge that unites all Italian institutions and keeps them deeply connected to the citizens”.