When Sergio Mattarella, the Italian president, on Sunday night vetoed a controversial Eurosceptic to serve as the country’s finance minister, he was hailed as a hero by some and vilified as a traitor by others – some of whom threatened violence.

The responses revealed a deep divide in Italy over the country’s inclusion in the eurozone.

For supporters, Mattarella – who is an expert in constitutional law – took a necessary stand against encroaching populism, which they argue threatens to plunge Italy into another financial crisis. For his opponents, it was a heavy-handed, political veto against a legitimate and qualified choice – a former Bank of Italy official called Paolo Savona – whom Mattarella unfairly opposed for his Euroscepticism.

Luigi Di Maio, the 31-year-old head of the anti-establishment and populist Five Star Movement, called for Mattarella to be impeached, in a rare rebuke of the president by the leader of the country’s biggest political party.

The tumultuous events, which have plunged Italy into a political crisis – some say it is its first constitutional crisis – have thrust Mattarella, an enigmatic and sombre public official, into the limelight.

In the immediate aftermath of the election on 4 March, which resulted in a hung parliament, most analysts expected Mattarella to avoid an interventionist approach. But on Sunday, in the face of demands that he accept the nomination of an anti-euro finance minister named Paolo Savona, days after Italian markets were hit by doubts over whether the new populist government would adhere to fiscal constraints set by Brussels, Mattarella stood up against the populist leaders and rejected the choice.

While it was seen as a surprisingly robust pushback by the president, it was a move that some people who have followed Mattarella’s career say was born out of his Sicilian past, and the tragic event that drove him into politics.

Nearly 40 years ago, it was Piersanti, Mattarella’s brother and governor of Sicily, who was the politician in the family, while Mattarella was focused on legal studies. In January 1980, a mafia assassin murdered Piersanti as he sat in his Fiat with his wife and children, as they were heading to mass. Mattarella was one of the first on the scene – a famous photograph captured the moment he held his dying brother’s head in his lap – and decided to enter politics shortly after his brother died in hospital.

“He is an example of an Italian moderate, a Christian Democrat, but with one special feature, which is that he experienced the killing of his brother,” said Sergio Fabbrini, the head of government studies at Luiss University in Rome.

“He is gentle, moderate, but he is also very stubborn. He is someone who cannot be easily threatened by a young politician like Di Maio,” he added.

In his former hometown of Palermo, old friends of the president spoke out in defence of Mattarella. “[He] has shown extraordinary respect for our constitution,” said Leoluca Orlando, the mayor of Palermo. “His decision is a choice that reflects not only the Italian people’s will but the constitutional principles.”

It was a view echoed in Piazza Florio, in Palermo, where Sicilians regard the populists as having tried too hard to push Mattarella into a corner. “He has proved he has got a strong character. He has got balls. He is teaching those politicians a lesson: don’t mess up with a Sicilian,” said Giuseppe La Barbera, a bar owner.

Others saw possible dangers ahead. “They thought Mattarella was a fool. They thought he was stupid. But guess what? He is smarter than them. And he did the right choice. What scares me are the consequences of his decision,’’ said Francesco Fiore, who is retired.

Mattarella’s decision to block Savona, which in turn spurred Guiseppe Conte to resign and on Monday forced the president to appoint a new interim prime minister, Carlo Cottarelli, a former official at the International Monetary Fund, also reflected his authority as Italy’s president.

Former presidents, including Mattarella’s predecessor, Giorgio Napolitano, have vetoed nominated ministers under previous governments, but in those cases, the prime ministers, including Silvio Berlusconi, have agreed with the president’s decision.



Why did Di Maio and his coalition partner, the far-right leader Matteo Salvini, press Mattarella? Fabbrini at Luiss University said it reflected a populist desire – like by Donald Trump or the Nigel Farage in the UK – to test institutional authority, and paint all institutions as being part of the country’s “elite”.

But, Fabbrini said, it would not be easy to portray Mattarella as a member of the so-called elite, given his Sicilian roots.