Alcide De Gasperi

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Alcide De Gasperi
Alcide De Gasperi


44th
President of the Council of Ministers of Italy
Temporary head of the Italian State
from June 12, 1946 to July 1, 1946
In office
December 10, 1945 – August 2, 1953
President Himself
Enrico De Nicola
Luigi Einaudi
Preceded by Ferruccio Parri
Succeeded by Giuseppe Pella

Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
December 12, 1944 – October 10, 1946
Prime Minister Ivanoe Bonomi
Ferruccio Parri
Himself
Preceded by Ivanoe Bonomi
Succeeded by Pietro Nenni
In office
July 26, 1951 – August 2, 1953
Prime Minister Himself
Preceded by Carlo Sforza
Succeeded by Giuseppe Pella

Minister of the Interior
In office
July 13, 1946 – January 28, 1947
Prime Minister Himself
Preceded by Giuseppe Romita
Succeeded by Mario Scelba

2ndPresident of the European Parliament
In office
1954 – August 19, 1954
Preceded by Paul Henri Spaak
Succeeded by Giuseppe Pella

Born April 3 1881(1881-04-03)
Trentino, Austria-Hungary
Died 19 August 1954 (aged 73)
Passo Sella, Italy
Political party Christian Democracy
Spouse Francesca Romani
Children Maria Romana De Gasperi
other 3 daughters
Alma mater University of Vienna
Religion Roman Catholic

Alcide De Gasperi (3 April 1881 – 19 August 1954) was an Italian statesman and politician. He is considered to be one of the Founding fathers of the European Union, along with the Frenchman Robert Schuman and the German Konrad Adenauer.

Biography

De Gasperi was born in Pieve Tesino in Trentino, at that time belonging to Austria-Hungary, now part of the Province of Trento in Italy.

He studied philosophy and literature in Vienna and afterward became a journalist. In 1911 he became a Member of Parliament in the Austrian Reichsrat. His home region was transferred to Italy after the First World War. In 1919 he was one of the founders, with Don Luigi Sturzo, of the Italian Popular Party, or Partito Popolare; starting in 1921 he was an MP for the party. He later became party leader and Secretary-General.

De Gasperi served a 16-month jail sentence as an anti-fascist. After his release in 1931 he worked in the library of the Vatican; there, in 1943, during the Second World War, he organized the establishment of the first (and at the time, illegal) Christian Democracy party, or Democrazia Cristiana, drawing upon the ideology of the Popular Party. From 1945 to 1953 he was the prime minister of eight successive Christian Democratic governments. His eight-year rule remains a landmark of political longevity for one leader in modern Italian politics.

In 1946, when Italy became a Republic, he was elected Capo Provvisorio dello Stato (Provisional Head of State) Pro-Tempore and Regnante Reggente. He is the only man to have become President of the Council, Republic and Regent.

In 1952 he received the Karlspreis (engl.: International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen), an Award by the German city of Aachen to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace. That same year he vetoed a coalition with former fascists and monarchists for the city of Rome elections advocated by some ecclesiastical circles (the so-called operazione Sturzo); Democrazia Cristiana won, but the governmental block lost some 11%. Subsequently, Pope Pius XII denied him audience, which he accepted as a Catholic but protesting as Italian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. In that famous letter, he wrote to the Pope: «As a christian I accept the humiliation, although I don't know how justify it; but as President of the Council (Prime minister) and Foreign Minister, the dignity and authority which I represent and of whom I cannot deprive myself even in my private relationships, imposes me to express my amazement».

De Gasperi died in Sella di Valsugana, in Trentino. He is buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, a basilica in Rome.

See also

  • Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement
  • Alcide de Gasperi Building

Bibliography

  • Man from the Mountains, biography in Time Magazine, May 25, 1953
  • Pietro Scoppola, La proposta politica di De Gasperi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1977.
  • Giulio Andreotti, Intervista su De Gasperi; a cura di Antonio Gambino, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1977.
  • Giulio Andreotti, De Gasperi visto da vicino, Milano, Rizzoli, 1986.
  • Nico Perrone, De Gasperi e l'America, Palermo, Sellerio, 1995.
  • Alcide De Gasperi: un percorso europeo, a cura di Eckart Conze, Gustavo Corni, Paolo Pombeni, Bologna, Il mulino, 2004.
  • Piero Craveri, De Gasperi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2006

External links

Political offices
Preceded by:
Ivanoe Bonomi
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1944–1946
Succeeded by:
Pietro Nenni
Preceded by:
Ferruccio Parri
Prime Minister of Italy
1945–1953
Succeeded by:
Giuseppe Pella
Preceded by:
Giuseppe Romita
Italian Minister of the Interior
1946–1947
Succeeded by:
Mario Scelba
Preceded by:
Carlo Sforza
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1951–1953
Succeeded by:
Giuseppe Pella
Preceded by:
Paul Henri Spaak
President of the European Parliament
1954
Succeeded by:
Giuseppe Pella
Party Political Offices
Preceded by:
none
Secretary of the Italian Christian Democracy
1944-1946
Succeeded by:
Attilio Piccioni
Preceded by:
Guido Gonella
Secretary of the Italian Christian Democracy
1953-1954
Succeeded by:
Arnaldo Forlani


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