Abstract

President Sergio Mattarella’s mandate has affected the National foreign policy, validating a trend emerged during President Napolitano’s term. Thanks to his previous role as Constitutional judge, President Mattarella shaped his exercise of guarantee powers with a particular sensitivity for legal compliance of national institutional processes with International and European legal rules. The Presidential exercise of this specific Constitutional policy-line based on Article 87(1) of the Italian Constitution finds legal grounding in Constitutional provisions that enable the domestic system’s opening to legal systems beyond the nation state (Articles 10, 11, 117 (1) of the Italian Constitution). The cases studies reported in the research show that the influence of President Mattarella on the National foreign policy is also based on the exercise of powers that cannot be strictly considered Presidential foreign policy prerogatives, such as the control power over laws and the appointment of Ministers. Through his exercise of these powers, President Mattarella has contributed to giving the office a larger substantive role on foreign policy, thus implementing constitution provisions.