Do we like them?

Do we like Sergio Mattarella?

Our score: 8 out of 10. Consistent public statements against discrimination and for migrants, one contested pardon, and a thin record on the good-person side.

Mattarella is the 12th President of Italy, in the job since 2015 and re-elected in 2022. He was born in Palermo, and his path into politics runs through the Mafia killing of his brother Piersanti, then head of Sicily's regional government, in 1980. Sergio was among the first on the scene. It's the formative thing in his story, and it explains the anti-Mafia streak that has run through his speeches ever since.

The biggest stoush of his time in the job was in November 2024, when Elon Musk posted about Italian judges blocking migrant transfers to Albania, writing that the judges needed to go. Mattarella answered, without naming Musk, that Italy is a great democratic country that knows how to look after itself. His office also said a foreign figure in a government role must respect Italy's sovereignty. Musk's representative said he respected the president and the constitution but would keep sharing his opinions.

The recent mess is the Minetti pardon. He quietly granted clemency to the former regional councillor on humanitarian grounds, and when Il Fatto Quotidiano raised questions about the paperwork, he took the unusual step of asking the justice ministry to check the file. In June 2026 prosecutors reported the adoption at the centre of it was lawfully recognised and that no investigations were pending, which closed the case for the Quirinale. A jeweller seeking his own pardon later told Mattarella to look to his conscience, so the argument isn't entirely dead.

The good stuff is mostly public service: showing up to commemorate the anti-Mafia judges Falcone and Borsellino, and keeping the message steady that the Mafia can be beaten. He's spoken up on Gaza, Ukraine and peace as well. That's more a record of words and institutional duty than of personal charity, and I couldn't find a charitable act of his own, so I won't pretend otherwise.

So the verdict: a decent, steady head of state who has stood by LGBTQ+ people and migrants in his own words, with the Minetti call the one real question mark. Two gaps remain. Most of my page fetches were blocked, so some details rest on search summaries. And his legislative votes weren't checked line by line. For a family page, he's an easy yes.