Senator for life

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A senator for life is a member of the senate elected or appointed for lifetime. As of 2006, a few members of the Italian Senate are lifetime senators. Several South American countries abolished lifetime membership for former Presidents.

1 Italy
- 1.1 Overview
- 1.2 List of Italian life senators
2 Canada
3 South America
4 France
5 See also
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Italy

[edit] Overview

In Italy, a senatore a vita is a member of the Italian Senate appointed by the President of the Italian Republic "for outstanding patriotic merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field". Former Presidents of the Republic are ex officio life senators. A limit of five senators for life, excluding former Presidents, is established by the Italian constitution. They have the same equal power of elected senators, including the right to vote and being elected to the Presidency of the Senate. In addition, their mandate does not end with the dissolution of a Senate, allowing them to sit in any elected Senate for their whole lifetime.

Every President of the Italian Republic has made at least one appointment of a senator for life, with the exception of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. The president who appointed the highest number of senators for life was Luigi Einaudi, who made eight nominations during his mandate.

[edit] List of Italian life senators

Those currently in office are in bold. As of 2006, there are six of them.

Amintore Fanfani
Giovanni Gronchi
Pasquale Jannaccone
Giovanni Leone <ref>Leone was life senator from 1967 to 1971 by appointment and from 1978 to his death (2001) ex officio, as former president.</ref>
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Mario Luzi
Cesare Merzagora
Eugenio Montale
Giorgio Napolitano <ref>Napolitano was senator for life before becoming president</ref>
Pietro Nenni
Giuseppe Paratore
Ferruccio Parri
Alessandro Pertini

Sergio Pininfarina
Camilla Ravera
Meuccio Ruini
Carlo Alberto Salustri, known as Trilussa
Giuseppe Saragat
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Antonio Segni
Giovanni Spadolini
Luigi Sturzo
Paolo Emilio Taviani
Arturo Toscanini <ref>Toscanini was appointed on 5 December 1949, but declined the next day.</ref>
Leo Valiani
Vittorio Valletta
Umberto Zanotti Bianco

[edit] Canada

Members of the Canadian Senate used to be appointed for life. Since the Constitution Act of 1965, however, newly-appointed members face mandatory retirement upon reaching the age of seventy-five.

Lists of past and present Members of the Canadian Senate
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

[edit] South America

The constitutions of a number of countries in South America have granted former presidents the right to be senator for life (senador vitalicio). Most of these countries have since excised these provisions as they are increasingly seen as antidemocratic. The Constitution of Paraguay still has such a provision, but former presidents are permitted only to speak and not vote. Probably the most familiar case is that of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (1998-2002) whose parliamentary immunity protected him from prosecution for human rights violations until the Chilean Supreme Court revoked it in 2000.

In Venezuela, the lifetime senate seat was extant from 1961 to 1999. The former Presidents who held this position were: Rómulo Betancourt (1964-1981), Raúl Leoni (1969-1972), Rafael Caldera (1974-1994, 1999), Carlos Andrés Pérez (1979-1989, 1994-1996), Luis Herrera Campins (1984-1999) and Jaime Lusinchi (1989-1999). The senate was abolished with the 1999 constitution.

In Peru, the practice was extant from 1979 to 1993. Francisco Morales Bermúdez, Fernando Belaúnde Terry and Alan García Pérez were the only lifetime senators until the abolition of the senate in 1993 and the introduction of a unicameral parliament.

In Chile, under the 1980 Constitution, two ex-Presidents have become senators-for-life: Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1998-2002) and Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (2000-2006).<ref>Mr. Frei retained his senate seat by being democratically elected in the December 2005 parliamentary elections and is currently President of the Senate.</ref> The provision was abolished by constitutional reforms in 2005.

The senators of the Empire of Brazil were appointed for lifetime (1826-1889). The emperor appointed the senator for each consituency from a list of three, indirectly elected, candidates. For details, see Senate of Brazil: History <ref>For the list of senators, see pt:Lista de senadores do Brasil</ref>.

[edit] France

In France, during the Third Republic, the Senate was composed of 300 members, 75 of which were inamovible ("unremovable"). Introduced in 1875, the status was suppressed for new senators in 1884, but maintained for those in office. Émile Deshayes de Marcère, the last surviving sénateur inamovible, died in 1918. Overall there had been 116 lifetime senators. <ref>Les sénateurs inamovibles</ref>