"When the President of the Republic promulgates a law, he does not make it his own, nor does he agree with it; he merely performs his responsibility, as I have stated. The President of the Republic, fortunately, is not a sovereign and hence lacks this authority". These are the comments of Sergio Mattarella, President of the Republic, who spoke yesterday during a meeting with a team from Casagit, an organization that provides welfare to journalists. "Frequently the President of the Republic is invoked with different reasons, with different motivations - said the Head of State - There are those who turn to him asking vehemently: 'the President of the Republic should not sign this law because he cannot agree with it, because it is gravely wrong', or: 'the President of the Republic signed that law and therefore shared it, approved it, made it his own'" . "Well - Mattarella pointed out - the President of the Republic does not sign laws; he signs their promulgation, which is a completely different thing. It is that fundamental act for the publishing and entrance into force of legislation, by which the President of the Republic certifies that the Chambers have both accepted a new law, in the same text, and that this language does not contain any obvious unconstitutionality". The Head of State went on to explain that "if he were to go beyond this limit assigned to him by the Constitution and say, for example, 'I am not promulgating this law because there is possibly some doubt of constitutionality that it could enclose and depict in it,' he would unduly arrogate to himself the task that is entrusted to the Constitutional Court. Or, if he even said, 'I am not signing this law because I do not agree with it, because, in my opinion, it is wrong,' he would be doing something quite different, going beyond any limit set by the Constitution in the relationship between the powers of the State and between the constitutional bodies".
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