The Senate of the Republic (Italian: Senato della Repubblica) is a house of the bicameral Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno (Senate of the Kingdom), itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino (Subalpine Senate) of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848. It sits in Palazzo Madama in Rome.

The Senate consists of 315 elected members, and as of 2011^[update] seven senators for life. The elected senators must be over 40 years of age, are elected by an electorate composed of Italian citizens aged 25 or over and, save for six senators who represent Italians living outside Italy, are elected on a regional basis. The senators for life are composed of former Presidents of the Italian Republic, who hold office ex officio and those who are appointed by the president for "for outstanding merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field".

The six current life senators are:

The current Italian President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, was a life senator before his election in 2006; his membership of the Senate is suspended whilst in Presidential office.

Matteo Renzi (born Florence, 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician. He was elected as Mayor of Florence on June 22, 2009 with 59.96% of the vote. In February 2011 he publicly called on all the Italian politicians of the Berlusconi era to retire, citing the fact that Berlusconi is only six years younger than Renzi's grandmother.

Renzi was born in Florence in 1975. He studied in Florence, and then he graduated in law in Florence University. He joined the Italian People's Party in 1996, and became Provincial Secretary in 1999. He was President of the Province of Florence from 2004 to 2009, winning 58.8% of the ballots in the elections of 12 June 2004, representing a centre-left coalition.

On 9 June 2009 in the elections for the Mayor of Florence, Renzi (as a member of the Democratic Party) obtained 47.57% of the ballots, against 32% for Giovanni Galli, the candidate of the centre-right coalition headed by The People of Freedom party.

In 2010, while his popularity was increasing, he organised a meeting in Florence in Leopolda Station to discuss about Italian politic, after stating that a complete change was necessary also in his party. That is the reason why media gave him the name "scrapper".

Silvio Berlusconi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsilvjo berluˈskoːni] ( listen); born 29 September 1936) is an Italian politician and media tycoon who served three times as Prime Minister of Italy from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the controlling shareholder of Mediaset and owner of A.C. Milan. He is nicknamed Il Cavaliere (The Knight) for his knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour, which he received in 1977.

Berlusconi is the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister of Italy, and third longest-serving since Italy's unification, after Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Giolitti, holding three separate terms. Technically, he has been sworn in four times because after a cabinet reshuffle, as happened with Berlusconi in 2005, the new ministry is sworn in and subjected to a vote of confidence. He is the leader of the People of Freedom political movement, a centre-right party he founded in 2009. From November 2009 to November 2011, he was the most senior leader of the G8 countries. In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked him as the 169th richest man in the world with a net worth of US$5.9 billion.

Lucio Malan (born 30 July 1960) is an Italian politician.

Malan was born in Luserna San Giovanni, Turin. He earned his BA in Literature at the University of Turin, then he obtained a master's degree in history at University of Nevada Las Vegas, where Lucio Malan was also tutor-assistant.

Lucio Malan is member of the People of Freedom Party. From 1994 to 1996 he was a deputy. Since 2001 he has been senator and secretary of the presidency of Italian Senate. He is also a member of NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Lucio Malan is a member of the Waldensian Evangelical Church.

From 1990 to 1998 he was guest speaker of Italian History and Culture at University Studies Abroad Consortium in Turin, Italy.

From 1998 to 2008 he has been the director of communications of Forza Italia Party.

Some Italian newspapers have reported that Senator Malan took his wife as a secretary using public funds of the Senate.^{[citation needed]}