Giovanni Spadolini | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| President of the Senate of the Republic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 2 July 1987 – 14 April 1994 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Giovanni Malagodi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Carlo Scognamiglio | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister of Italy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 28 June 1981 – 1 December 1982 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | Sandro Pertini | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Arnaldo Forlani | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Amintore Fanfani | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Acting President of Italy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 28 April 1992 – 28 May 1992 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Giulio Andreotti | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Francesco Cossiga | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Oscar Luigi Scalfaro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1925-06-21)21 June 1925 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 4 August 1994(1994-08-04) (aged 69) Rome, Italy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Italian Republican Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Florence | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Profession | Teacher, journalist, historian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Giovanni Spadolini (Italian:[dʒoˈvannispadoˈliːni]; 21 June 1925 – 4 August 1994) was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as the 44thprime minister of Italy. He had been a leading figure in theRepublican Party and the first head of a government to not be a member ofChristian Democrats since 1945. He was also a newspaper editor, journalist and historian. He is considered a highly respected intellectual for his literary works and his cultural dimension.
Professor of Contemporary History at theUniversity of Florence, he was the author of numerous historical works. He was also a journalist and editor-in-chief of the Bolognese newspaperIl Resto del Carlino, then of the Milanese newspaperIl Corriere della Sera.
Spadolini was the firstItalian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Environment from 1974 to 1976. He becamePrime Minister in 1981 and he led two successive cabinets which were supported by a coalition of parties in Parliament but this only lasted a few months. He wasMinister of Defence in the governments headed by Socialist leaderBettino Craxi from 1983 to 1987 before being electedPresident of the Senate. In 1991, Spadolini was appointedLifetime Senator by PresidentFrancesco Cossiga.
Spadolini was born into a bourgeois family: his fatherGuido Spadolini was aMacchiaioli painter, owner of a large library in which the young Giovanni studied and began to form his culture inspired by secular, liberal-democratic and republican values. He was the younger brother of architectPierluigi Spadolini. He was an assiduous student, brilliant in all subjects, atLiceo Classico Statale Galileo. He published his first article in 1944 inItalia e Civiltà ("Italy and Civilisation"), a fascist periodical critical of the excesses of fascism in which the idealist philosopher Giovanni Gentile also collaborated.
During thepost-war period (from 1945 to 1950) Spadolini became a moderateliberal conservative. He also rejected antisemitism in favour ofZionism.[1] He studied law at theUniversity of Florence and shortly after graduation was appointed Professor of Contemporary History in the Faculty of Political Science. He also became a political columnist for several newspapers, such asIl Borghese,Il Messaggero andIl Mondo, becoming editor-in-chief of the Bologna paperIl Resto del Carlino in 1955, doubling its circulation during his tenure. In 1968, Spadolini moved to Milan where he took over the editorship of Italy's largest newspaper,Corriere della Sera, a position he held until 1972. In that year, he was elected as a senator, going on to serve as minister of the environment and then minister of education. Then in 1979, he was appointedsecretary of the small but powerfulItalian Republican Party (PRI).
As a journalist, he sometimes used the pseudonymGiovanni dalle Bande Nere (Giovanni of the Black Bands).
He served asPrime Minister of Italy from 1981 to 1982, the first PM since 1945 not to be a member of theChristian Democrats. He pledged to fight corruption (in particular a scandal involving certain Italian political figures connected with aMasonic lodge known as P2) and mounting terrorist violence.
In foreign policy, he was anon-interventionist but also moderatelyAmericanist. In particular, he shifted away from Italy's previous pro-Arab policy, refusing to meetYasser Arafat during his official visit to Italy to protest the murder of Stefano Gaj Taché, an Italian Jewish child, byPLO terrorists,[2] and suggesting that theBologna train station bombing may have been perpetrated by the PLO andGaddafi'sLibya, in spite of a majority accusingneo-fascists.
In 1982, after a political crisis between the Minister of the TreasuryBeniamino Andreatta (DC) and theMinister of FinanceRino Formica (PSI), Spadolini resigned and formed a new cabinet identical to the former, which collapsed in November whenBettino Craxi's Socialist Party withdrew its support.
Under his leadership, the PRI obtained 5% of all votes for the first time in the1983 Italian general election. From 1987 to April 1994, he was president of theItalian Senate. He became ActingPresident of Italy on 28 April 1992, upon the resignation of then PresidentFrancesco Cossiga, for a month. Following the electoral success ofSilvio Berlusconi'sForza Italia, he lost the chairmanship of the Senate toCarlo Scognamiglio Pasini by a single vote.
Spadolini never married.[3] In July 1994 he had a stomach operation.[3] He died of respiratory failure in Rome in August 1994.[3]
| Election | House | Constituency | Party | Votes | Result | |
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| 1972 | Senate of the Republic | Milan I | PRI | 7,231 |  YElected | |
| 1976 | Senate of the Republic | Milan I | PRI | 6,862 | YElected | |
| 1979 | Senate of the Republic | Milan IV | PRI | 10,134 | YElected | |
| 1983 | Senate of the Republic | Milan I | PRI | 13,405 | YElected | |
| 1987 | Senate of the Republic | Milan I | PRI | 7,745 | YElected | |
Media related toGiovanni Spadolini at Wikimedia Commons| Media offices | ||
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| Preceded by Vittorio Zincone | Director of theResto del Carlino 1955–1968 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Mario Ferrara | Director of theNuova Antologia 1955–1994 | Succeeded by Cosimo Ceccuti |
| Preceded by Alfio Russo | Director of theCorriere della Sera 1968–1972 | Succeeded by Piero Ottone |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by Furio Cicogna | President of theBocconi University 1976–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| New office | Minister for Cultural Heritage and Environment 1974–1976 | Succeeded by Mario Pedini |
| Preceded by Mario Pedini | Minister of Public Education 1979 | Succeeded by Salvatore Valitutti |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Italy 1981–1982 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Defence 1983–1987 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Italian Senate 1987–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of Italy Acting 1992 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Secretary of the Italian Republican Party 1979–1987 | Succeeded by |
Giovanni Spadolini | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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