Pier Ferdinando Casini will not stand at the next Italian elections after 44 years

The announcement

Pier Ferdinando Casini, a senator, has said he will not stand at the next general elections, ending a parliamentary career that began in 1983. He made the announcement in a long interview with Corriere della Sera, which QN also published. The 70-year-old former president of the Chamber of Deputies called the decision a "realistically complicated" passage, saying the hardest part of politics was not arriving or staying but finding the right moment to stop.

At the next general elections, after 44 years, I will not stand again. I am leaving Parliament. I believe the time has come to make way for people more in tune with the parties and the coalitions that will present themselves to voters. I thank everyone for the trust placed in me until now. I will stop here.

A career across two republics

Casini has sat in Parliament since 1983, served two terms in Strasbourg and presided over the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2005. Repubblica traces his path from the Christian Democrats through his years in Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right, and La Stampa adds that he spent the last ten years as an independent senator backed by the centre-left. Recalling his first day at Montecitorio in July 1983, he said he phoned his father Tommaso, a former provincial secretary of the Christian Democrats, and could only manage "Sono qui" before breaking into tears. The key dates of his career are set out below.

Favourite memories and views on leaders

Asked for the best day of his career, Casini named the audience he granted to John Paul II while serving as Chamber president. He said every day spent in the chamber had been meaningful, describing the sense of being listened to "in the heart of democracy".

When, as president of the Chamber, I received John Paul II. A man, a saint, who gave a Christian like me unrepeatable feelings.

Of the leaders he has known, Casini called Berlusconi the most charismatic. He named Gianfranco Fini as the most underrated politician, saying that without the Fiuggi turning point there would have been no Giorgia Meloni. For the greatest Christian Democrat, he chose Amintore Fanfani, the man of the housing plan, who also held the presidency of the UN and was a friend of Giorgio La Pira and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Views on Meloni and Schlein

Casini said Giorgia Meloni has shown considerable consistency by carrying the whole weight of the coalition on her shoulders, though he warned that being consistent sometimes risks looking stubborn. On Elly Schlein, he said she too is stubborn and that underestimating her would be a serious mistake, pointing to her ability to reach young voters outside traditional politics.

She is stubborn too. And it would be a serious mistake to underestimate her. Many forget that she is capable of speaking to a young world that is not aligned with traditional politics.

Family reaction and the Quirinale question

Casini said he discussed the decision only with his children. The two eldest, Maria Carolina and Benedetta, had heard him talk about quitting many times and did not think he was serious this time. His children Caterina and Francesco, who had always urged him to run again, agreed in their last conversation that the time had come. Adnkronos notes that the presidential vote for the Quirinale is due in two years and that Casini was one of the most widely tipped candidates, a point he answered with the following remark.

As the history of the Republic shows, you do not stand for the Quirinale, you are elected.