Giorgio Napolitano is an Italian politician who served as the 11th president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, and the only Italian president to be reelected to the presidency. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics, some critics have sometimes referred to him as Re Giorgio. He is the longest serving president in the history of the modern Italian Republic, which has been in existence since 1946.
Although the presidency is a nonpartisan office as guarantor of Italy's Constitution, Napolitano was a longtime member of the Italian Communist Party. He was a leading member of a modernizing faction on the right of the party. First elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1953, he took an assiduous interest in parliamentary life and was President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992 to 1994. He was Minister of the Interior from 1996 to 1998 under Romano Prodi.
Napolitano was appointed a Senator for life in 2005 by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. In May 2006, he was elected by Parliament as President of Italy. During his first term of office, he oversaw governments both of the centre-left, led by Prodi, and the centre-right, led by Silvio Berlusconi.