Mariano Rumor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Prime Minister of Italy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 8 July 1973 – 23 November 1974 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | Giovanni Leone | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Giulio Andreotti | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Aldo Moro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 13 December 1968 – 6 August 1970 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | Giuseppe Saragat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Francesco De Martino Paolo Emilio Taviani | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Giovanni Leone | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Emilio Colombo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretary of Christian Democracy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 27 January 1964 – 19 January 1969 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Aldo Moro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Flaminio Piccoli | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1915-06-16)16 June 1915 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 22 January 1990(1990-01-22) (aged 74) Vicenza, Italy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | DC (1943–1990) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Padua | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mariano Rumor (Italian pronunciation:[maˈrjaːnoruˈmor]
Rumor served asItalian Minister of Agriculture from 1959 to 1963,Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1974 to 1976, andItalian Minister of the Interior in two brief periods, in 1963 and from 1972 to 1973. Rumor was thesecretary of the DC from 1964 to 1969.[3]
Mariano Rumor was born inVicenza, Veneto, on 16 June 1915. His father, Giuseppe Rumor, was the owner of a printing studio and promoter of a local magazine, "The Catholic Worker" founded by Rumor's grandfather. His mother, Tina Nardi, came from aliberal family.[4] He attended the classical lyceumAntonio Pigafetta in Vicenza, then he earned a degree from theUniversity of Padua in literature in 1939.[5]
After his graduation, Rumor became a teacher at an Italian lyceum until his mobilization as a lieutenant in theItalian Army during theSecond World War. Subsequent to theArmistice of Cassibile in 1943 between Italy and theAllied powers, Rumor joined theItalian resistance movement.[6] After the end of the war, he was among the founders of theChristian Associations of Italian Workers (ACLI),[7] the widespread lay Catholic associations, and joined theChristian Democracy (DC) party, of which he became one of the main leaders in Veneto, very close to Prime MinisterAlcide De Gasperi.[8] In the1946 election, Rumor was elected with more than 29,000 votes to theConstituent Assembly, for the constituency ofVerona–Padova–Vicenza–Rovigo.[9][10]
He became a member of the new-bornChamber of Deputies in1948. The 1948 elections were heavily influenced by theCold War confrontation between theSoviet Union and the United States, and are now best known for the covertpolitical warfare waged by theUS State Department andCentral Intelligence Agency on behalf of the DC.[11][12] The elections were eventually won with a comfortable margin by De Gasperi's DC that defeated the left-wing coalition of thePopular Democratic Front, that comprised theItalian Communist Party (PCI) and theItalian Socialist Party (PSI).[13] As a deputy he became very close toGiuseppe Dossetti, becoming a member of his Christian leftist wing.[14]
In 1950, Guido Gonella succeededPaolo Emilio Taviani as National Secretary of the DC; the target of the new secretariat was to build a unitary management of the party in support of the government led by Alcide De Gasperi. In this context, Rumor was nominated for the first time as National Deputy Secretary, together with Dossetti.[15]
The withdrawal from politics of Giuseppe Dossetti, left his faction without a charismatic leader; however, Mariano Rumor played a decisive role in the birth of the new faction, called "Democratic Initiative", which brought together not only Dossetti's followers, such asGiorgio La Pira,Amintore Fanfani andAldo Moro, but also members of the centrist pro-De Gasperi majority, as Paolo Emilio Taviani andOscar Luigi Scalfaro.[16] Rumor himself presented the manifesto of Democratic Initiative, published on a magazine with the same name.[17] In this text, alongside the declaration of support for De Gasperi and theAtlantic Pact, Dossetti's principles of a Christian reformist party were reaffirmed, with the aim of moving the country towards a "democratic evolution".[18]
Rumor immediately played a leading role in the faction. This position, led him to hold the first government posts, becoming Undersecretary forAgriculture inDe Gasperi's seventh government, a position he also maintained inDe Gasperi VIII Cabinet and, after De Gasperi's retirement in 1954, in the short-lived government led byGiuseppe Pella.[19] In the brieffirst Fanfani government, from January to February 1954, Rumor was appointed toSecretary of the Council of Ministers.[20]
In 1954, after the National Congress ofNaples, which saw the affirmation of Democratic Initiative and the subsequent election of Fanfani as party's Secretary, Rumor was elected again deputy secretary.[21] He held this office for the next five years, until Democratic Initiative split up. In fact, many members of the faction, started criticizing the political line of Fanfani's secretariat, who cautiously began to open to the prospect of a collaboration withItalian Socialist Party (PSI).[22] Prominent members of the faction, including Rumor himself, put the Secretary in minority during the National Congress of March 1959. In this way, Democratic Initiative split up between the followers of Fanfani and the dissident group, now renamed by allDorotei ("Dorotheans"), from the place where they had gathered before the congress, the convent of the sisters of Santa Dorotea in Rome. The new faction was built aroundAntonio Segni, Mariano Rumor and Aldo Moro, who was elected new Secretary.[23]
In the same year, as one of the faction's leaders, Rumor was appointedMinister of Agriculture, in the second Segni's government, a position he would keep in the governments ofFernando Tambroni, and Fanfani.[24] In this role, Rumor contributed to the definition of one of the first plans for the development and innovation of the national agricultural sector, the so-called "Green Plan".[25]
In1963 election, the DC suffered a sharp decline of consensus.[26] Rumor was appointedMinister of the Interior in the short-lived government chaired byGiovanni Leone.[27]
As minister, he had to face one of the most tragic events in Italian republican history, theVajont Dam disaster.[28] On 9 October 1963, a landslide occurred onMonte Toc, in the province ofPordenone. The landslide caused amegatsunami in the artificial lake in which 50 million cubic metres of water overtopped the dam in a wave of 250 metres (820 ft), leading to the complete destruction of several villages and towns, and 1,917 deaths.[29] In the previous months, the Adriatic Society of Electricity (SADE) and the Italian government, which both owned the dam, dismissed evidence and concealed reports describing the geological instability of Monte Toc on the southern side of the basin and other early warning signs reported prior to the disaster.[30]
Immediately after the disaster, government and local authorities insisted on attributing the tragedy to an unexpected and unavoidable natural event. However, numerous warnings, signs of danger, and negative appraisals had been disregarded in the previous months and the eventual attempt to safely control the landslide into the lake by lowering its level came when the landslide was almost imminent and was too late to prevent it.[31] The communist newspaperL'Unità was the first to denounce the actions of management and government.[32][33]
In January 1964, Rumor was elected the DC secretary, holding the office until January 1969 and leading the party in a complex phase of government cooperation with the socialists.[34] In the five years leading the DC, Rumor tried to reassure the moderate electorate, in an attempt to recover the consensus lost in the previous elections.[35]
Rumor embodied the typical characteristics of the Dorotheans: caution, moderation, the propensity for mediation rather than for decision, attention to practical and concrete topics, rather than to major strategies, the representation of the interests of the provincialmiddle class, the privileged link with the public administration, with the Catholic world and with direct farmers.[36] In thegeneral elections of 1968, the DC managed to increase its votes, albeit slightly, gaining 39% of votes.[37] This result was experienced as a success by the Rumor secretariat and he became a natural candidate for the leadership of the government.
On 13 December 1968, Mariano Rumor was sworn in as prime minister for the first time, leading agovernment composed of Christian Democrats, Socialists andRepublicans.[38]
During his first term as prime minister, a number of progressive reforms were carried out.[39]
In foreign policy, Rumor signed, on 28 January 1969, of theNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. However, his first term as prime minister was deeply marked by thePiazza Fontana massacre, aterrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of National Agrarian Bank inPiazza Fontana, Milan, killing 17 people and wounding 88. In the same afternoon, three more bombs were detonated in Rome and Milan, and another was found unexploded.[40] The attack was planned by a neo-fascist group,Ordine Nuovo ("New Order"), whose aim was to prevent the country falling into the hands of the left-wing by duping the public into believing the bombings were part of a communist insurgency.[41]
During his first term, Rumor led three different governments. From December 1968 to July 1969, the DC joined with theItalian Socialist Party (PSI) as well as theItalian Republican Party (PRI). Then, from August 1969 to February 1970 he led a DC-only government; its collapse led to a 45-day long period without government, with issues such as Italian divorce law and the status of theItalian Communist Party (PCI) generating instability. After this period, which included an attempt by former Prime MinisterAmintore Fanfani to form a government, Rumor led a new coalition with the Socialist, Republican, andDemocratic Socialist parties from March until July 1970.[42]
In 1972, Rumor was appointedMinister of the Interior, in the government ofGiulio Andreotti.[43]
In 1973, Rumor was the target of an assassination attempt, planned by Gianfranco Bertoli, a self-described anarchist. Four were killed during the bombing, and 45 injured, while Rumor escaped alive from it. Bertoli was given a life-term in 1975. Bertoli was an informant ofSISMI, the "Military Intelligence and Security Service", at the time. Court proceedings later showed that this connection was one of mistaken identity.[44]
After three years underEmilio Colombo andGiulio Andreotti's ministries, Rumor returned to the office of Prime Minister, first leading a coalition composed of Christian Democrats, Socialists, Republicans, andDemocratic Socialists from July 1973 to March 1974. After this government collapsed, Rumor formed a new coalition within two weeks, calling upon the Socialists and Democratic Socialists to join with DC from March until October 1974.[45][46]
Weathering a cabinet resignation in June 1974, Rumor's final cabinet would fall in October 1974 after failing to come to an agreement on how to deal with rising economic inflation.[47][48]
In November 1974, Rumor was appointedMinister of Foreign Affairs inAldo Moro's fourth cabinet.[49]
During his ministry, he signed theOsimo Treaty withYugoslavia, defining the official partition of theFree Territory of Trieste. The port city ofTrieste with a narrow coastal strip to the north west (Zone A) was given to Italy; a portion of the north-western part of the Istrian peninsula (Zone B) was given to Yugoslavia.[50]
The Italian government was harshly criticized for signing the treaty, particularly for the secretive way in which negotiations were carried out, skipping the traditional diplomatic channels. Italian nationalists of the MSI rejected the idea of giving upIstria, since Istria had been an ancient "Italian" region together with the Venetian region (Venetia et Histria).[51] Furthermore, Istria had belonged to Italy for 25 years betweenWorld War I and the end ofWorld War II, and the west coast of Istria had long had a sizeable Italian minority population.[52]
Some nationalist politicians called for the prosecution of Prime Minister Moro and Minister Rumor, for the crime oftreason, as stated in Article 241 of the Italian Criminal Code, which mandated a life sentence for anybody found guilty of aiding and abetting a foreign power to exert its sovereignty on the national territory.[53]
The defeat in the1975 regional elections led to the removal ofAmintore Fanfani from the party secretariat. Rumor was proposed by Moro as the new party secretary, but he was vetoed by some members of his own faction. Due to this veto, Rumor abandoned the Dorotheans, approaching the positions of the new secretaryBenigno Zaccagnini. Following the Dorotheans' split, Rumor was slowly excluded from relevant positions in the party and in the government.
In 1979, Mariano Rumor was elected in theEuropean Parliament, where he later became Chair of thePolitical Affairs Committee in 1980, serving in that post until he left the European Parliament in 1984.[54]
Rumor died of a heart attack inVicenza on 22 January 1990 at the age of 74.[55]
In the years since his death, Rumor's legacy has been widely debated.[56] TheLockheed bribery scandals, of which Rumor was exonerated by theItalian Parliament, took place under his government and culminated in the trials of two formerDefense ministers,Luigi Gui andMario Tanassi.[57] Rumor was implicated in the scandal after a Lockheed codebook referenced "Antelope Cobbler" as "Prime Minister", which could have been any of Rumor,Aldo Moro, or then-PresidentGiovanni Leone during the relevant time period.[58] While Leone later resigned from the Presidency due to accusations of corruption, none of the three men were ever convicted of being "Antelope Cobbler".[59][60][61]
Others have criticized his Presidential Decree No. 1092, a measure which allowed Italian governmental workers to retire after nineteen and a half years of work or fourteen and a half years if they were a woman; such retirees were later termed "baby pensioners" by detractors. The program, instituted in 1973, was terminated in 1992. As of 2014 it was estimated that around half a million pensioners who benefited from the decree were still drawing an average of €1,500 per month.[62]
Rumor never married. During all his lifetime and even after his death, speculations arose around his possiblehomosexuality.[63] However, Rumor had always denied these speculations, which would have ruined his career in asocial conservative party like the DC.[64]
| Election | House | Constituency | Party | Votes | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Constituent Assembly | Verona | DC | 29,213 |  YElected | |
| 1948 | Chamber of Deputies | Verona | DC | 43,002 | YElected | |
| 1953 | Chamber of Deputies | Verona | DC | 49,576 | YElected | |
| 1958 | Chamber of Deputies | Verona | DC | 61,492 | YElected | |
| 1963 | Chamber of Deputies | Verona | DC | 93,735 | YElected | |
| 1968 | Chamber of Deputies | Verona | DC | 168,828 | YElected | |
| 1972 | Chamber of Deputies | Verona | DC | 266,710 | YElected | |
| 1976 | Chamber of Deputies | Verona | DC | 73,729 | YElected | |
| 1979 | Senate of the Republic | Vicenza | DC | 88,028 | YElected | |
| 1979 | European Parliament | North-East Italy | DC | 235,478 | YElected | |
| 1983 | Senate of the Republic | Vicenza | DC | 73,372 | YElected | |
| 1987 | Senate of the Republic | Vicenza | DC | 81,348 | YElected | |
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Secretary of the Council of Ministers 1954 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Agriculture 1959–1963 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1963 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Italy 1968–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of the Interior 1972–1973 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Italy 1973–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs 1974–1976 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Secretary of Christian Democracy 1964–1969 | Succeeded by |
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