Mario Segni | |
|---|---|
 | |
| State Secretary ofAgricultural, Food and Forestry Policies | |
| In office 4 August 1986 – 28 July 1987 | |
| Prime Minister | Bettino Craxi Amintore Fanfani |
| Preceded by | Giuseppe Zurlo |
| Succeeded by | Francesco Cimino |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies | |
| In office 5 July 1976 – 8 May 1996 | |
| Constituency | Sardinia |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 19 July 1994 – 19 July 2004 | |
| Constituency | Islands (1994–1999) North-West (1999–2004) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mariotto Segni (1939-05-16)16 May 1939 (age 85) Sassari, Italy |
| Political party | DC (1976–1993) AD (1993) PS (1993–2003) PSS (2003–2006) |
| Other political affiliations | PpI (1994) EPP (1994–1995) PS–AN (1999) UEN (1999–2004) |
| Parent(s) | Antonio Segni Laura Carta Camprino |
| Alma mater | University of Sassari |
| Profession | Politician, Professor |
Mariotto Segni (born 16 May 1939) is a retired Italian politician and professor of civil law. He founded several parties, which focused on fighting for electoral reform through referendums. He is the son of the politicianAntonio Segni, one-timepresident of Italy.
Segni was born May 16, 1939, inSassari,Sardinia.[1] He was born toAntonio Segni, himself a prominent politician, and Laura Carta Caprino, who would have a total of four children.[2][3] Prior to his political career Segni studied law at theUniversity of Sassari, following in the footsteps of his father.[4][5]
Following his graduation, Segni moved to Padau where he worked underLuigi Carraro, a four-timeChristian Democrat Senator, and taught at university.[6][7] In 1975 he became a professor of civil law at the University of Sassari.[8] He was the chair of the Faculty of Law at the University of Sassari until his retirement in 2011.[citation needed]
A long-time member ofChristian Democracy, like his father, he was first elected Regional Councillor in 1967. Shortly after gaining his position at the University of Sassari, Segni ran for the national parliament in 1976.[9] He came second behindFrancesco Cossiga with 85,736 votes but still won a seat.[9][10] He continued to hold this office until 1996.[11][12][13][14][15] He served as State Secretary of theMinistry Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies in the secondCraxigovernment and in the sixthFanfanigovernment.[1][16] He was also chairman of the Control Committee for Information and Security Services and for State Secrecy from 1987 to 1991.[13]
Riding the momentum from the1991 Italian electoral law referendum, which he supported, Segni contributed to the establishment of theDemocratic Alliance in 1992.[8][17] He also founded thePopulars for Reform that same year, with the goal of changing the electoral system fromproportional representation to afirst-past-the-post system.[18] In 1993, these reforms led to theMattarellum law which he said would bring stability to Italy by making it more similar to Anglo-Saxon democracies.[19]
In 1993, Segni broke from the Christian Democrats, who were suffering fromtangentopoli, while he served in theXI legislature.[5][14] In March 1994, he founded theSegni Pact from the remains of the previous Democratic Alliance and Populars for Reform.[6][8] Segni had hoped to capitalize on the political vacuum left by the now tainted Christian Democrats.[20]
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Segni was a candidate for Prime Minister for the centrist alliancePact for Italy (composed ofMino Martinazzoli'sItalian People's Party and the Segni Pact) in 1994, and aMember of the European Parliament(MEP) from 1994 to 1995.[8][21] The party as a whole, however, did not have much initial success and joined[who?] the Anti-Berlusconi coalition during the firstBerlusconigovernment.[4][15] During his first tenure in theEuropean Parliament he joined theEuropean People's Party along withseveral other members of the Segni Pact,Danilo Poggiolini, Vincenzo Viola, and Livio Filippi. He was a part of the European Parliament's delegation to the Arab Maghreb Union.[21] His party joined with theItalian Renewal List while he began refocusing on teaching.[citation needed]
In 1999, Mario Segni returned to the domestic political scene, with the aim of attempting to abolish proportional quotas via referendums. Despite his failure to do so, in the1999 European election, the Sengi Pact co-federated with theNational Alliance, creating theSegni Pact – National Alliance list, a coalition also known as the 'elephant' headed byGianfranco Fini[22][23] He won a second term as an MEP and voted alongside theUnion for Europe of the Nations.[24] During this tenure, he served on the Committee of Constitutional Affairs, the delegation toMERCOSUR, and acted as vice-chair for the delegation toCentral America andMexico.[25]
In 2003 he rebranded the Segni Pact, combining forces withCarlo Scognamiglio and former Segni Pact member's theSardinian Reformers, naming it thePact of Liberal Democrats. It continued to criticize the Berlusconi camp. This culminated in his siding with the 'no' vote onthe 2006 Constitutional Referendum.[6]
During the 2006 election for the Presidency of the Italian Senate, Segni supportedFranco Marini over former Christian Democrat headGiulio Andreotti, citing a respect for the old regime but a desire to see more progress in Italian politics and a fear of a return to the corruption prior to the Mani Pulite investigation.[26]
In early 2007 he became Coordinator of the Promoting Committee of the Electoral Referendum, led byGiovanni Guzzetta. This placed Segni alongside politicians such asGianni Alemanno,Angelino Alfano,Mercedes Bresso,Riccardo Illy,Renato Brunetta,Antonio Martino,Giovanna Melandri,Arturo Parisi,Daniele Capezzone,Stefania Prestigiacomo,Gaetano Quagliariello, andGiorgio Tonini in the fight for a majority based electoral system.[6] On 24 July 2007, Segni handed over 800,000 signatures to theCourt of Cassation for the presentation of the Electoral Referendum.[6] The2009 Italian electoral law referendum, took place in June 2009, but did not reach the required quorum.[27]
After Segni left politics he continued to provide political commentary as a well known figure.[4][28][29][30] In 2018, he was interviewed on the developments in Italian politics and provided his opinion on the developments regarding theNorthern League and the5 Star Movement.[31][32] He also gave his view on the push to return to aproportional representation system in Italy, stating that "the memory of Italy is short."[19]
Mario Segni is also the current president of the Antonio Segni Foundation, which seeks to put his father's work online.[33]
While Segni's party was not electorally successful, he is still known for his work through referendums.[34][35][36] His work targeting the electoral system through referendums have been described as "contributing to the collapse of the established political system" of the first republic.[37] While he was not entirely electorally successful, he is considered to have had success via the referendum process and is characterized as having been one of the most powerful politicians of Italy at his peak.[36]
He has criticized prominent politicians in Italy such as Berlusconi and movements within the country.[29][30]
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