Ferruccio Parri
Encyclopedia
Ferruccio Parri was an Italian
partisan and politician
who served as the 43rd Prime Minister of Italy
for several months in 1945. During the resistance he was known as Maurizio.
, Piedmont
. A soldier during World War I
, he was wounded four times and received four decorations. He studied literature and after the war he was a journalist with the Corriere della Sera
.
's Fascist regime
and joined Carlo
and Nello Rosselli
's group Giustizia e Libertà
(Justice and Liberty), the principal Italian non-Marxist antifascist movement.
In 1926 he was involved in the escape of the reformist socialist leader Filippo Turati
, together with Carlo Rosselli and Sandro Pertini. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison. He was arrested several times and banished to the islands Ustica
and Lipari
. In 1930 he was again banished for five years together with other leaders of Giustizia e Libertà.
During World War II
, Parri joined the Italian resistance movement
to fight the Nazi German
occupiers and Mussolini's Italian Social Republic
, leading the Action Party (Partito d'Azione) – founded in 1942 by former militants of Giustizia e Libertà – and its partisan
groups in northern Italy (alongside representatives of other factions, such as Sandro Pertini, Rodolfo Morandi and Lelio Basso
). He was also president of the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale.
In January 1945 Parri was arrested in Milan. He was released in March 1945 in Lugano
(Switzerland) as part of Operation Crossword
(or Operation Sunrise) – a series of secret negotiations between Allen Dulles, head of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services
(OSS) and representatives of the German Wehrmacht command in Northern Italy, which led to the unconditional surrender of the German forces in Northern Italy and Western Austria on May 2, 1945. The release of Parri was requested from the Germans as an evidence of good faith and the ability to act. He returned in time to take part in the conclusive phase of the resistance and in the uprising in April.
, he was appointed leader of a government supported, among the others, by the Action Party, the Christian Democracy, the Communist Party
, the Socialist Party
and the Liberal Party
. A middle-of-the-road man, he had been chosen as the compromise leader of a compromise Cabinet. He was also the Minister of the Interior (in charge of the police). When the Liberals withdrew their support from the coalition government, Parri resigned from his position.
At the time Parri warned: "Beware of civil war ... of reopening the door to fascism. ... There are rumors that Washington and London have no trust in me. The real reason for this lack of trust is that Italy has only a fragile front of antifascism. ... I hope my successors will follow the only worthy policy for Italy: left of center... ."
The Action Party quickly faded from the Italian political scene. Parri founded, together with Ugo La Malfa
, the movement Concentrazione Democratica, which was later absorbed into the Italian Republican Party
(Partito Repubblicano Italiano – PRI). In 1953 he left the latter party to create the short-lived Unità Popolare with Piero Calamandrei
. In 1957, the party merged into the Italian Socialist Party
(Partito socialista italiano – PSI).
.
In 1958 he was elected in the Senate on the list of the PSI. Parri proposed to form a Parliamentary Antimafia Commission
to investigate the Sicilian Mafia
. The proposal was not taken up by the parliamentary majority; and in 1961 the Christian Democrat party (DC – Democrazia Cristiana) in the Senate and Sicilian politicians such as Bernardo Mattarella
and Giovanni Gioia (both later accused of links with the Mafia) dismissed the proposal as useless. However, in 1962 a Commission was formed to deal with the issue, and Parri became a member.
In 1963, President Giuseppe Saragat
appointed Parri senator for life
. He adhered to the Independent Left group, and was for long its chairman. In March of the same year, he became the editor of the magazine L'Astrolabio, in which he argued in favour of a more accomplished democracy and denounced the resurgence of neofascism.
Parri died in Rome in 1981 at the age of 91. He once characterized himself: "I am a common man – uomo della strada. I am just another guy – uomo qualunque ... I hope a typical one. My job is not only to prevent the right and left wings from exercising undue influence on the Government, but I have to think too of the enormous masses of peasants sweating in the fields under the sun, blacksmiths beating their anvils in villages, workers, men and women everywhere who have no taste for politics and are outside parties. ... I am just a uomo della strada... ." Parri is buried at the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno
in Genoa.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
partisan and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
who served as the 43rd Prime Minister of Italy
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
for several months in 1945. During the resistance he was known as Maurizio.
Biography
Parri was born in PineroloPinerolo
Pinerolo is a town and comune in north-western Italy, 40 kilometres southwest of Turin on the river Chisone.-History:In the Middle Ages, the town of Pinerolo was one of the main crossroads in Italy, and was therefore one of the principal fortresses of the dukes of Savoy. Its military importance...
, Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
. A soldier during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he was wounded four times and received four decorations. He studied literature and after the war he was a journalist with the Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera
The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
.
Antifascist militant
He became active against Benito MussoliniBenito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's Fascist regime
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and joined Carlo
Carlo Rosselli
Carlo Rosselli was an Italian political leader, journalist, historian and anti-fascist activist, first in Italy then abroad...
and Nello Rosselli
Nello Rosselli
Nello Rosselli was an Italian Socialist leader and historian.Rosselli was born in Rome to a prominent Jewish family, and was the brother of Carlo Rosselli. Nello was a member of the reformist Partito Socialista Unitario of Filippo Turati, Giacomo Matteotti and Claudio Treves, which had split from...
's group Giustizia e Libertà
Giustizia e Libertà
Giustizia e Libertà was an Italian anti-fascist organization, active from 1929 to 1945.- Italian anti-fascist organization :The anti-fascist organization Giustizia e Libertà was founded in Paris in 1929 by the Italian refugees Carlo Rosselli, Emilio Lussu, Alberto Tarchiani, and Ernesto Rossi...
(Justice and Liberty), the principal Italian non-Marxist antifascist movement.
In 1926 he was involved in the escape of the reformist socialist leader Filippo Turati
Filippo Turati
Filippo Turati was an Italian sociologist, poet and Socialist politician.-Early life:Born in Canzo, province of Como, he graduated in law at the University of Bologna in 1877, and participated in the Scapigliatura movement with the most important artists of the period in Milan, publishing poetry...
, together with Carlo Rosselli and Sandro Pertini. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison. He was arrested several times and banished to the islands Ustica
Ustica
Ustica is the name of a small island, about 9 km across, situated 52 km north of Capo Gallo, Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea...
and Lipari
Lipari
Lipari is the largest of the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the north coast of Sicily, and the name of the island's main town. It has a permanent population of 11,231; during the May–September tourist season, its population may reach up to 20,000....
. In 1930 he was again banished for five years together with other leaders of Giustizia e Libertà.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Parri joined the Italian resistance movement
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
to fight the Nazi German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
occupiers and Mussolini's Italian Social Republic
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
, leading the Action Party (Partito d'Azione) – founded in 1942 by former militants of Giustizia e Libertà – and its partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
groups in northern Italy (alongside representatives of other factions, such as Sandro Pertini, Rodolfo Morandi and Lelio Basso
Lelio Basso
Lelio Basso was an Italian democratic socialist politician and journalist.-Early life:Lelio Basso was born in Varazze into a Liberal bourgeois family. In 1916, he and his family moved to Milan where he attended the Berchet grammar school...
). He was also president of the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale.
In January 1945 Parri was arrested in Milan. He was released in March 1945 in Lugano
Lugano
Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...
(Switzerland) as part of Operation Crossword
Operation Crossword
During World War II, Operation Crossword or Operation Sunrise was a series of secret negotiations conducted in March 1945 in Switzerland between representatives of Nazi Germany and the Western Allies to arrange a local surrender of German forces in northern Italy...
(or Operation Sunrise) – a series of secret negotiations between Allen Dulles, head of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
(OSS) and representatives of the German Wehrmacht command in Northern Italy, which led to the unconditional surrender of the German forces in Northern Italy and Western Austria on May 2, 1945. The release of Parri was requested from the Germans as an evidence of good faith and the ability to act. He returned in time to take part in the conclusive phase of the resistance and in the uprising in April.
Prime Minister of Italy
After the end of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was appointed leader of a government supported, among the others, by the Action Party, the Christian Democracy, the Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
, the Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
and the Liberal Party
Italian Liberal Party
The Italian Liberal Party was a liberal political party in Italy.-Origins:The origins of liberalism in Italy came from the so-called "Historical Right", a parliamentary group formed by Camillo Benso di Cavour in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia following the 1848 revolution...
. A middle-of-the-road man, he had been chosen as the compromise leader of a compromise Cabinet. He was also the Minister of the Interior (in charge of the police). When the Liberals withdrew their support from the coalition government, Parri resigned from his position.
At the time Parri warned: "Beware of civil war ... of reopening the door to fascism. ... There are rumors that Washington and London have no trust in me. The real reason for this lack of trust is that Italy has only a fragile front of antifascism. ... I hope my successors will follow the only worthy policy for Italy: left of center... ."
The Action Party quickly faded from the Italian political scene. Parri founded, together with Ugo La Malfa
Ugo La Malfa
Ugo La Malfa was an Italian politician, and an important leader in the Italian Republican Party, of which his son, Giorgio La Malfa, is now president.- Early years and anti-Fascist resistance :...
, the movement Concentrazione Democratica, which was later absorbed into the Italian Republican Party
Italian Republican Party
The Italian Republican Party is a liberal political party in Italy.The PRI is party with old roots that originally took a left-wing position, claiming descent from the political position of Giuseppe Mazzini...
(Partito Repubblicano Italiano – PRI). In 1953 he left the latter party to create the short-lived Unità Popolare with Piero Calamandrei
Piero Calamandrei
Piero Calamandrei was an Italian author, jurist, soldier, university professor and politician. He was one of Italy's leading authorities on the law of civil procedure....
. In 1957, the party merged into the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
(Partito socialista italiano – PSI).
In Parliament
In 1946, he was elected to the Italian Italian Constituent Assembly and in 1948 to the Italian SenateItalian Senate
The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the 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 , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...
.
In 1958 he was elected in the Senate on the list of the PSI. Parri proposed to form a Parliamentary Antimafia Commission
Antimafia Commission
The Italian Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . The Antimafia Commission is a commission of inquiry into, initially, the “phenomenon of the Mafia”...
to investigate the Sicilian Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
. The proposal was not taken up by the parliamentary majority; and in 1961 the Christian Democrat party (DC – Democrazia Cristiana) in the Senate and Sicilian politicians such as Bernardo Mattarella
Bernardo Mattarella
Bernardo Mattarella was an Italian politician for the Christian Democrat party . He has been Minister of Italy several times...
and Giovanni Gioia (both later accused of links with the Mafia) dismissed the proposal as useless. However, in 1962 a Commission was formed to deal with the issue, and Parri became a member.
In 1963, President Giuseppe Saragat
Giuseppe Saragat
Giuseppe Saragat was an Italian politician who was the fifth President of the Italian Republic from 1964 to 1971.Saragat was born in Turin, from Sardinian parents....
appointed Parri senator for life
Senator for life
A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , 7 Italian Senators out of 322, 4 out of the 47 Burundian Senators and all members of the British House of Lords have lifetime tenure...
. He adhered to the Independent Left group, and was for long its chairman. In March of the same year, he became the editor of the magazine L'Astrolabio, in which he argued in favour of a more accomplished democracy and denounced the resurgence of neofascism.
Death
Parri was the president of the Federazione italiana associazioni partigiane (FIAP), and authored several important studies on the history of the Italian resistance.Parri died in Rome in 1981 at the age of 91. He once characterized himself: "I am a common man – uomo della strada. I am just another guy – uomo qualunque ... I hope a typical one. My job is not only to prevent the right and left wings from exercising undue influence on the Government, but I have to think too of the enormous masses of peasants sweating in the fields under the sun, blacksmiths beating their anvils in villages, workers, men and women everywhere who have no taste for politics and are outside parties. ... I am just a uomo della strada... ." Parri is buried at the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno
Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno
The Cimitero monumentale di Staglieno is an extensive cemetery located on a hillside in the district of Staglieno of Genoa, Italy, famous for its monumental sculpture...
in Genoa.