Mario Scelba
Encyclopedia
Mario Scelba was an Italian Christian Democratic
politician who served as the 34th Prime Minister of Italy
from February 1954 to July 1955. He was also President of the European Parliament
from 1969 to 1971.
, Sicily, the son of a poor sharecropper on land owned by the priest Don Luigi Sturzo
, one of the founders of the Italian People's Party
(Partito Popolare Italiano, PPI). He studied law and graduated at the University of Rome.
Scelba was Sturzo's godchild and protégé. Sturzo paid for his law studies in Rome and employed him as his private secretary. When the Fascists
suppressed the PPI and forced Sturzo into exile (in Brooklyn
, part of the time), Scelba remained in Rome as his agent. He wrote for the underground paper Il Popolo during World War II. Arrested by the Germans
, he was released within three days as a worthless catch.
On the day of Rome's liberation
by the Allied forces
, he joined the new five-man national directorate of the Christian Democracy
(Democrazia Cristiana, DC). The Christian Democrats started organising post-Fascist Italy in competition with, but also for a time in coalition with, the parties of the centre and left. In 1945, Scelba won a seat in the post-war Italian Constituent Assembly and entered Ferruccio Parri
's anti-fascist government as Minister of Post and Telecommunications, a post he retained in the two successive governments of Alcide de Gasperi
.
, remaining, with some brief interludes, until July 1955. The short, bald, plump, oddly-impressive Scelba was probably the most powerful man in the successive governments of De Gasperi, after the Premier himself.
As Minister, his hard-fisted record earned him the nickname "Iron Sicilian" for his ruthless suppression of left-wing workers protests and strikes, as well as Neo Fascist rallies. When he first took over, the police were so shoddy that Scelba exclaimed: "If I were Communist, I'd start a revolution tomorrow." He wrote the so-called Scelba law, formally banning Fascism, but also designed to restrain the activities of the Communist party.
Scelba built the country's dishevelled police into a force of some 200,000, heavily armed and equipped with armoured cars and special jeep-riding riot squads called the Reparto Celere. He made himself known as a man of action against what he considered Communist disorder. In doing so, Scelba made himself many enemies, including many democrats who disapproved his harsh methods. His short, stubby figure and broad eye-twinkling smile was popular with political cartoonists.
Scelba had a conservative attitude toward certain issues such as scant bathing suits, public kissing and nude statues. Despite this and his single-minded concern for law and order, on socio-economic
issues Scelba leaned left of centre in the Democrazia Cristiana. He favoured more social reforms and public works, attacking speculators for pushing up prices. "It is virtually impossible," he once said, "to be Minister of Interior for a government that doesn't care if the people work or not." Scelba emphasized the possibility of undermining Communist strength "by determined measures of social and economic improvement – land reform of the great latifundia
s in south Italy, for example."
Scelba was involved in setting up the Gladio
network, the clandestine NATO "stay-behind
" operation in Italy after World War II, intended to organise resistance after a Warsaw Pact
invasion of Western Europe.
After just three months in office as Minister of the Interior, Scelba was confronted with the Portella della Ginestra massacre
. Twelve days after the left-wing election victory in the Sicilian regional elections of 1947, the May 1 labour parade in Portella della Ginestra was attacked, culminating in the killing of 11 people and the wounding of over thirty. The attack was attributed to the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano
, the aim being to punish local leftists for the recent election results.
Scelba reported to Parliament the next day that so far as the police could determine, the Portella della Ginestra shooting was non-political. He claimed that bandits notoriously infested the valley in which it occurred. However, that version was challenged by the left. The Communist deputy Girolamo Li Causi
stressed the political nature of the massacre, claiming that the Mafia
had perpetrated the attack, in cahoots with the large landowners, monarchists and the rightist Uomo Qualunque Front
. He also claimed that police inspector Ettore Messana – supposed to coordinate the prosecution of the bandits – had been in league with Giuliano and denounced Scelba for allowing Messana to remain in office. Later documents would substantiate the accusation. Li Causi and Scelba would be the main opponents in the aftermath of the massacre – the subsequent killing of alleged perpetrator, Salvatore Giuliano, and the trial against Giuliano's lieutenant Gaspare Pisciotta
and other remaining members of Giuliano's gang.
The trial of those responsible was held in the city of Viterbo
, starting in the summer of 1950. During the trial, Scelba was again accused of involvement in the plot to carry out the massacre, but the accusations were often contradictionary or vague. In the end, the judge concluded that no higher authority had ordered the massacre, and that the Giuliano band had acted autonomously. At the trial Pisciotta said: “Again and again Scelba has gone back on his word: Mattarella
and Cusumano returned to Rome to plead for total amnesty for us, but Scelba denied all his promises.” Pisciotta also claimed that he had killed Salvatore Giuliano in his sleep by arrangement with Scelba. However, there was no evidence that Scelba had had any relationship with Pisciotta.
were heavily influenced by the cold-war confrontation between the Soviet Union
and the United States. After the Soviet-inspired February 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia
, the US became alarmed about Soviet intentions and feared that, if the leftist coalition were to win the elections, the Soviet-funded Italian Communist Party
(PCI) would draw Italy into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. The election campaign remains unmatched in verbal aggression and fanaticism in Italy's history, on both sides. The Christian Democratic propaganda became famous in claiming that in Communist countries "children sent parents to jail", "children were owned by the state", "people ate their own children", and claiming disaster would strike Italy if the left were to take power.
Interior Minister Mario Scelba announced that the government had 330,000 men under arms, including a special shock force of 150,000 ready to take on the Communists if they tried to make trouble on election day. The definitive test of strength came in 1950 during a nationwide general strike and mounting street clashes. On one day in March 1950, hundreds were wounded, including many policemen, and 7,000 people were arrested.
for Italy and pushed through the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947 with the wartime Allied powers.
While appointed Prime Minister, the aftermath of the Portella della Ginestra massacre
came to haunt Scelba again. On February 9, 1954, Gaspare Pisciotta was found dead in his cell. After Pisciotta had been sentenced to life in imprisonment and forced labour, he realized that he had been abandoned by all. He declared that he was going to tell the whole truth, in particular who signed the letter which had been brought to Giuliano, which demanded the massacre at Portella delle Ginestra in exchange for liberty for the bandits and which Giuliano had destroyed immediately.
The cause of Pisciotta's death, as revealed by the autopsy, was the ingestion of 20 mg of strychnine
. All Italy was alive with theories about who killed Pisciotta. Both the government and the Mafia
were suggested as being behind the murder of Pisciotta, but no one was ever brought to trial. The fascist and Communist press did their best to put it on newly appointed Premier Scelba's administration, but had no evidence to go on.
Another scandal that rocked Scelba’s government was the Montesi affair
. Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni
, a co-founder of Italy's Christian Democrat Party, as well as the national police chief, had to resign when Piccioni's jazz-pianist son was implicated in the scandal involving sex, narcotics and the death of party girl, Wilma Montesi.
At the end of 1954, Scelba approved a package of measures against the Communist party and trade unions that was largely modelled on United States psychological warfare
plans first elaborated in 1951–2. However, it proved to be a cosmetic as much as desperate attempt to consolidate his precarious position at home, by obtaining a formal American backing. Its half-hearted implementation exacerbated Washington's resentment toward its Italian allies and barely affected PCI's organizational structure. The PCI used the episode to denounce the illiberal nature of the Christian Democrat regime and to pose itself once more as the real defender of political liberties and constitutional rights.
Scelba's fall was accomplished by his own party, due to political manoeuvring of party rivals like ex-Premier Giuseppe Pella
(who wanted to be Premier again) and Party Secretary Amintore Fanfani
(who also liked to be Premier). His chief regret, said Scelba, was that he had been overthrown not by a parliamentary vote but by party manoeuvring.
, put together the first of Italy's many centre-left coalitions. Although he remained a member of the Italian parliament, Scelba's moderate right wing of the party never had the strength to command another government. In 1958, Scelba formed his own corrente or faction within the Christian Democratic Party, the Centrismo popolare, made up by conservative politicians such Guido Gonella, Roberto Lucifredi, Mario Martinelli and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
. Scelba absolved the faction in 1968. In 1960–2 he again served as Minister of the Interior in the government of Amintore Fanfani
.
Scelba was elected in the Italian Constituent Assembly in 1946 and was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies
from 1948–68. He was elected as a Senator
in 1968 and served until 1979 when he resigned. He was a fervent supporter of European Unity and was a member of the European Parliament
from 1960–79, and was its president
from 1969 to 1971.
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Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
politician who served as the 34th Prime Minister of Italy
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
from February 1954 to July 1955. He was also President of the European Parliament
President of the European Parliament
The President of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. He or she also represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally. The President's signature is required for enacting most EU laws and the EU budget.Presidents serve...
from 1969 to 1971.
Early career
Scelba was born in CaltagironeCaltagirone
Caltagirone is a town and comune in the province of Catania, on the island of Sicily, about 70 km southwest of Catania. It is bounded by the comuni of Acate, Gela, Grammichele, Licodia Eubea, Mazzarino, Mazzarrone, Mineo, Mirabella Imbaccari, Niscemi, Piazza Armerina, San Michele di...
, Sicily, the son of a poor sharecropper on land owned by the priest Don Luigi Sturzo
Luigi Sturzo
Don Luigi Sturzo was an Italian Catholic priest and politician. Known in his lifetime as a "clerical socialist," Sturzo is considered one of the fathers of Christian democracy. Sturzo was one of the founders of the Partito Popolare Italiano in 1919, but was forced into exile in 1924 with the rise...
, one of the founders of the Italian People's Party
Italian People's Party (1919–1926)
The Italian People's Party was a Christian-democratic political party in Italy.It was founded in 1919 by Luigi Sturzo, a Catholic priest. The PPI was backed by Pope Benedict XV to oppose the Italian Socialist Party...
(Partito Popolare Italiano, PPI). He studied law and graduated at the University of Rome.
Scelba was Sturzo's godchild and protégé. Sturzo paid for his law studies in Rome and employed him as his private secretary. When the Fascists
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
suppressed the PPI and forced Sturzo into exile (in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, part of the time), Scelba remained in Rome as his agent. He wrote for the underground paper Il Popolo during World War II. Arrested by the Germans
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...
, he was released within three days as a worthless catch.
On the day of Rome's liberation
Allied invasion of Italy
The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group during the Second World War. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign...
by the Allied forces
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
, he joined the new five-man national directorate of the Christian Democracy
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
(Democrazia Cristiana, DC). The Christian Democrats started organising post-Fascist Italy in competition with, but also for a time in coalition with, the parties of the centre and left. In 1945, Scelba won a seat in the post-war Italian Constituent Assembly and entered Ferruccio Parri
Ferruccio Parri
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.-Biography:...
's anti-fascist government as Minister of Post and Telecommunications, a post he retained in the two successive governments of Alcide de Gasperi
Alcide De Gasperi
Alcide De Gasperi was an Italian statesman and politician and founder of the Christian Democratic Party. From 1945 to 1953 he was the prime minister of eight successive coalition governments. His eight-year rule remains a landmark of political longevity for a leader in modern Italian politics...
.
The "Iron Sicilian"
On February 2, 1947, Scelba became Minister of the Interior in the third government of Premier Alcide de GasperiAlcide De Gasperi
Alcide De Gasperi was an Italian statesman and politician and founder of the Christian Democratic Party. From 1945 to 1953 he was the prime minister of eight successive coalition governments. His eight-year rule remains a landmark of political longevity for a leader in modern Italian politics...
, remaining, with some brief interludes, until July 1955. The short, bald, plump, oddly-impressive Scelba was probably the most powerful man in the successive governments of De Gasperi, after the Premier himself.
As Minister, his hard-fisted record earned him the nickname "Iron Sicilian" for his ruthless suppression of left-wing workers protests and strikes, as well as Neo Fascist rallies. When he first took over, the police were so shoddy that Scelba exclaimed: "If I were Communist, I'd start a revolution tomorrow." He wrote the so-called Scelba law, formally banning Fascism, but also designed to restrain the activities of the Communist party.
Scelba had a conservative attitude toward certain issues such as scant bathing suits, public kissing and nude statues. Despite this and his single-minded concern for law and order, on socio-economic
Socioeconomics
Socioeconomics or socio-economics or social economics is an umbrella term with different usages. 'Social economics' may refer broadly to the "use of economics in the study of society." More narrowly, contemporary practice considers behavioral interactions of individuals and groups through social...
issues Scelba leaned left of centre in the Democrazia Cristiana. He favoured more social reforms and public works, attacking speculators for pushing up prices. "It is virtually impossible," he once said, "to be Minister of Interior for a government that doesn't care if the people work or not." Scelba emphasized the possibility of undermining Communist strength "by determined measures of social and economic improvement – land reform of the great latifundia
Latifundia
Latifundia are pieces of property covering very large land areas. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates, specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, olive oil, or wine...
s in south Italy, for example."
Scelba was involved in setting up the Gladio
Gladio in Italy
While "stay-behind" anti-communist networks existed in all NATO countries, the Italian branch of Operation Gladio was the first one to be discovered. It was set up under Minister of Defense Paolo Taviani's supervision...
network, the clandestine NATO "stay-behind
Stay-behind
In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
" operation in Italy after World War II, intended to organise resistance after a Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
invasion of Western Europe.
Portella della Ginestra massacre
Portella della Ginestra massacre
The Portella della Ginestra massacre was one of the more violent acts of in the history of modern Italian politics, when 11 people were killed and 33 wounded during May Day celebrations in Sicily on May 1, 1947, in the municipality of Piana degli Albanesi...
. Twelve days after the left-wing election victory in the Sicilian regional elections of 1947, the May 1 labour parade in Portella della Ginestra was attacked, culminating in the killing of 11 people and the wounding of over thirty. The attack was attributed to the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano
Salvatore Giuliano
Salvatore Giuliano was a Sicilian peasant. It has been suggested that the subjugated social status of his class led him to become a bandit and separatist. He was mythologised during his life and after his death...
, the aim being to punish local leftists for the recent election results.
Scelba reported to Parliament the next day that so far as the police could determine, the Portella della Ginestra shooting was non-political. He claimed that bandits notoriously infested the valley in which it occurred. However, that version was challenged by the left. The Communist deputy Girolamo Li Causi
Girolamo Li Causi
Girolamo Li Causi was a Sicilian Communist leader. As a Sicilian and communist he was actively involved in the post war struggle against the Mafia...
stressed the political nature of the massacre, claiming that the 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...
had perpetrated the attack, in cahoots with the large landowners, monarchists and the rightist Uomo Qualunque Front
Uomo Qualunque Front
The Front of the Ordinary Man was a short-lived populist libertarian and poujadist party in Italy...
. He also claimed that police inspector Ettore Messana – supposed to coordinate the prosecution of the bandits – had been in league with Giuliano and denounced Scelba for allowing Messana to remain in office. Later documents would substantiate the accusation. Li Causi and Scelba would be the main opponents in the aftermath of the massacre – the subsequent killing of alleged perpetrator, Salvatore Giuliano, and the trial against Giuliano's lieutenant Gaspare Pisciotta
Gaspare Pisciotta
Gaspare Pisciotta was a companion and close friend of the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano, and considered to be the co-leader of his outlaw band.- Origins :...
and other remaining members of Giuliano's gang.
The trial of those responsible was held in the city of Viterbo
Viterbo
See also Viterbo, Texas and Viterbo UniversityViterbo is an ancient city and comune in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It is approximately 80 driving / 80 walking kilometers north of GRA on the Via Cassia, and it is surrounded by the Monti Cimini and...
, starting in the summer of 1950. During the trial, Scelba was again accused of involvement in the plot to carry out the massacre, but the accusations were often contradictionary or vague. In the end, the judge concluded that no higher authority had ordered the massacre, and that the Giuliano band had acted autonomously. At the trial Pisciotta said: “Again and again Scelba has gone back on his word: Mattarella
Bernardo Mattarella
Bernardo Mattarella was an Italian politician for the Christian Democrat party . He has been Minister of Italy several times...
and Cusumano returned to Rome to plead for total amnesty for us, but Scelba denied all his promises.” Pisciotta also claimed that he had killed Salvatore Giuliano in his sleep by arrangement with Scelba. However, there was no evidence that Scelba had had any relationship with Pisciotta.
1948 elections
The general elections in April 1948Italian general election, 1948
The Italian elections of 1948 were the second democratic elections with universal suffrage ever held in Italy, taking place after the 1946 elections to the Constituent Assembly, responsible for drawing up a new Italian Constitution...
were heavily influenced by the cold-war confrontation between the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the United States. After the Soviet-inspired February 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, the US became alarmed about Soviet intentions and feared that, if the leftist coalition were to win the elections, the Soviet-funded Italian 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...
(PCI) would draw Italy into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. The election campaign remains unmatched in verbal aggression and fanaticism in Italy's history, on both sides. The Christian Democratic propaganda became famous in claiming that in Communist countries "children sent parents to jail", "children were owned by the state", "people ate their own children", and claiming disaster would strike Italy if the left were to take power.
Interior Minister Mario Scelba announced that the government had 330,000 men under arms, including a special shock force of 150,000 ready to take on the Communists if they tried to make trouble on election day. The definitive test of strength came in 1950 during a nationwide general strike and mounting street clashes. On one day in March 1950, hundreds were wounded, including many policemen, and 7,000 people were arrested.
Prime Minister
On February 10, 1954, Scelba formed a new centrist government with a thin majority. It lasted until July 2, 1955. He sought strong relations with the United States and helped resolve outstanding wartime issues like the recovery of TriesteTrieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
for Italy and pushed through the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947 with the wartime Allied powers.
While appointed Prime Minister, the aftermath of the Portella della Ginestra massacre
Portella della Ginestra massacre
The Portella della Ginestra massacre was one of the more violent acts of in the history of modern Italian politics, when 11 people were killed and 33 wounded during May Day celebrations in Sicily on May 1, 1947, in the municipality of Piana degli Albanesi...
came to haunt Scelba again. On February 9, 1954, Gaspare Pisciotta was found dead in his cell. After Pisciotta had been sentenced to life in imprisonment and forced labour, he realized that he had been abandoned by all. He declared that he was going to tell the whole truth, in particular who signed the letter which had been brought to Giuliano, which demanded the massacre at Portella delle Ginestra in exchange for liberty for the bandits and which Giuliano had destroyed immediately.
The cause of Pisciotta's death, as revealed by the autopsy, was the ingestion of 20 mg of strychnine
Strychnine
Strychnine is a highly toxic , colorless crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine causes muscular convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia or sheer exhaustion...
. All Italy was alive with theories about who killed Pisciotta. Both the government and the 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...
were suggested as being behind the murder of Pisciotta, but no one was ever brought to trial. The fascist and Communist press did their best to put it on newly appointed Premier Scelba's administration, but had no evidence to go on.
Another scandal that rocked Scelba’s government was the Montesi affair
Wilma Montesi
Wilma Montesi was an Italian woman whose body was discovered near Rome. The finding of her lifeless body on a public beach near at Torvajanica, on Rome's littoral, led to prolonged investigations involving sensational allegations of drug and sex orgies in Roman society.The accusation of Ugo...
. Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni
Attilio Piccioni
Attilio Piccioni was an Italian politician, born in Poggio Bustone.He was a member of the Christian Democracy....
, a co-founder of Italy's Christian Democrat Party, as well as the national police chief, had to resign when Piccioni's jazz-pianist son was implicated in the scandal involving sex, narcotics and the death of party girl, Wilma Montesi.
At the end of 1954, Scelba approved a package of measures against the Communist party and trade unions that was largely modelled on United States psychological warfare
Psychological warfare
Psychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
plans first elaborated in 1951–2. However, it proved to be a cosmetic as much as desperate attempt to consolidate his precarious position at home, by obtaining a formal American backing. Its half-hearted implementation exacerbated Washington's resentment toward its Italian allies and barely affected PCI's organizational structure. The PCI used the episode to denounce the illiberal nature of the Christian Democrat regime and to pose itself once more as the real defender of political liberties and constitutional rights.
Scelba's fall was accomplished by his own party, due to political manoeuvring of party rivals like ex-Premier Giuseppe Pella
Giuseppe Pella
Giuseppe Pella was an Italian Christian Democratic politician who served as the 32nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1953 to 1954. He was also President of the European Parliament from 1954 to 1956 after the death of Alcide De Gasperi.He was born in Valdengo, Piedmont...
(who wanted to be Premier again) and Party Secretary Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani was an Italian career politician and the 33rd man to serve the office of Prime Minister of the State. He was one of the well-known Italian politicians after the Second World War, and a historical figure of the Christian Democracy .Fanfani and Giovanni Giolitti are still actually...
(who also liked to be Premier). His chief regret, said Scelba, was that he had been overthrown not by a parliamentary vote but by party manoeuvring.
In Parliament
After Scelba's fall, a political rival from the party's left wing, Antonio SegniAntonio Segni
Antonio Segni was an Italian politician who was the 35th Prime Minister of Italy , and the fourth President of the Italian Republic from 1962 to 1964...
, put together the first of Italy's many centre-left coalitions. Although he remained a member of the Italian parliament, Scelba's moderate right wing of the party never had the strength to command another government. In 1958, Scelba formed his own corrente or faction within the Christian Democratic Party, the Centrismo popolare, made up by conservative politicians such Guido Gonella, Roberto Lucifredi, Mario Martinelli and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro , Italian politician and magistrate, was the ninth President of the Italian Republic from 1992 to 1999, and is currently a senator for life...
. Scelba absolved the faction in 1968. In 1960–2 he again served as Minister of the Interior in the government of Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani was an Italian career politician and the 33rd man to serve the office of Prime Minister of the State. He was one of the well-known Italian politicians after the Second World War, and a historical figure of the Christian Democracy .Fanfani and Giovanni Giolitti are still actually...
.
Scelba was elected in the Italian Constituent Assembly in 1946 and was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
from 1948–68. He was elected as a Senator
Italian 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 1968 and served until 1979 when he resigned. He was a fervent supporter of European Unity and was a member of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
from 1960–79, and was its president
President of the European Parliament
The President of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. He or she also represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally. The President's signature is required for enacting most EU laws and the EU budget.Presidents serve...
from 1969 to 1971.
Sources
- Dickie, John (2004). Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia, London: Coronet ISBN 0-340-82435-2
- Ganser, Daniele (2005). NATO’s secret Armies. Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, London: Frank Cass ISBN 0-714-68500-3
- Servadio, Gaia (1976), Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day, London: Secker & Warburg ISBN 0-436-44700-2
External links
In ricordo di Mario Scelba, discorso pronunciato dal Presidente della Camera dei Deputati on. Pier Ferdinando Casini] a conclusione della celebrazione del decennale dalla morte e del centenario dalla nascita di Mario Scelba (Caltagirone, 29 ottobre 2001) L’anticomunista di ferro Gli eccidi operai e contadini del dopoguerra 1947–1954 di Gianni Viola|-
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