Oscar Luigi Scalfaro

Summary

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɔskar luˈiːdʒi ˈskalfaro]; 9 September 1918 – 29 January 2012)[1] was the president of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), he became an independent politician after the DC's dissolution in 1992, and was close to the centre-left Democratic Party when it was founded in 2007.

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Official portrait, 1992
President of Italy
In office
28 May 1992 – 15 May 1999
Prime Minister
Preceded byFrancesco Cossiga
Succeeded byCarlo Azeglio Ciampi
President of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
24 April 1992 – 25 May 1992
Preceded byNilde Iotti
Succeeded byGiorgio Napolitano
Ministerial offices
Minister of the Interior
In office
4 August 1983 – 28 July 1987
Prime Minister
Preceded byVirginio Rognoni
Succeeded byAmintore Fanfani
Minister of Public Education
In office
26 July 1972 – 7 July 1973
Prime MinisterGiulio Andreotti
Preceded byRiccardo Misasi
Succeeded byFranco Maria Malfatti
Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation
In office
12 February 1972 – 26 July 1972
Prime MinisterGiulio Andreotti
Preceded byItalo Viglianesi
Succeeded byAldo Bozzi
In office
23 February 1966 – 12 December 1968
Prime Minister
Preceded byAngelo Raffaele Jervolino
Succeeded byLuigi Mariotti
Secretary of the Council of Ministers
In office
10 February 1954 – 6 July 1955
Prime MinisterMario Scelba
Preceded byMariano Rumor
Succeeded byCarlo Russa
Parliamentary offices
Member of the Senate of the Republic
Life tenure
16 May 1999 – 29 January 2012
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
8 May 1948 – 25 May 1992
ConstituencyTurin–Novara–Vercelli
Member of the Constituent Assembly
In office
25 June 1946 – 31 January 1948
ConstituencyTurin
Personal details
Born(1918-09-09)9 September 1918
Novara, Italy
Died29 January 2012(2012-01-29) (aged 93)
Rome, Italy
Political party
Spouse
Maria Inzitari
(m. 1943; died 1944)
Children1
Signature

Biography edit

Scalfaro was born in Novara, Province of Novara, on 9 September 1918,[2] son of Guglielmo, Barone Scalfaro (born Naples, 21 December 1888) and wife Rosalia Ussino. He was raised in a religious atmosphere.[3] He became a member of the association Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action) at the age of 12 and kept its badge on his lapel until his death.[3]

Scalfaro studied law at Milan's Università Cattolica and graduated on 30 July 1941. On 21 October 1942, he entered the magistrature. In 1945, after the end of World War II, he became a public prosecuting attorney, and to date, he is the last Italian attorney to have obtained a death sentence: in July of that year, along with two others, he was a public prosecutor in the trial against former Novara prefect Enrico Vezzalini and servicemen Arturo Missiato, Domenico Ricci, Salvatore Santoro, Giovanni Zeno and Raffaele Infante, accused of "collaborating with the German invaders". After a three-day-long debate, all six were condemned to death. The sentence was carried out on 23 September 1945. Later on, he obtained one more death sentence, but the accused was pardoned before the execution could take place. In 1946 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly and later in 1948, he became a deputy representing the district of Turin. He was re-elected ten times in a row until 1992. Within the Democrazia Cristiana party he was associated with its right wing.

On 25 May 1992, he was elected as President of the Italian Republic,[4] after a two-week stalemate of unsuccessful attempts to reach agreement. The killing of anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone prompted his election. His mandate ended in May 1999, and he automatically became a lifetime member of the Senate.

 
Church and state: President Scalfaro with Pope John Paul II in November 1992

On 7 April 1994, Scalfaro co-officiated at the Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah at the Sala Nervi in Vatican City, along with Pope John Paul II, and Chief Rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff.

In recent times, Scalfaro was the chairman of the committee that advocated the abrogation, in the referendum of 25 and 26 June 2006, on the constitutional reform that had been passed in parliament the previous year by the former centre-right majority. Along with all the centre-left (and a few centre-right personalities, too), Scalfaro considered it to be dangerous for national unity and for other reasons. The opponents of the reform won a landslide victory in the referendum.

Scalfaro was the oldest surviving former Italian president and the second oldest member of the Senate, after Rita Levi-Montalcini. He consequently took the temporary presidency of the newly elected assembly which followed the 2006 general election, as Levi Montalcini refused the role because of her age. This made him one of the three politicians in Italian history to have presided over the three highest-ranked offices in the Italian Republic: President of the Republic, President of the Senate, and President of the Chamber of Deputies; the others are Sandro Pertini and Enrico De Nicola.

A staunch Catholic, and in the past, a rather conservative and anti-communist politician, Scalfaro nevertheless distrusted many members of the DC who changed support to Forza Italia, and was consistently on bad terms with Silvio Berlusconi. He openly supported the centre-left coalition,[citation needed] which included Democratic Party of the Left, which won the 1996 and 2006 elections. Despite his age, he also actively campaigned, for the "No" side, in the June 2006 referendum on a constitutional reform. This reform had been proposed by Berlusconi's House of Freedom coalition during its control of the government.

During the Second World War, in 1944, Scalfaro lost his 20-year-old wife Maria Inzitari, by whom he had a daughter, Marianna. He never married again.

After the 2008 parliamentary election, he was again asked to preside as pro tempore Speaker of the Senate after Rita Levi-Montalcini again refused the post, but this time he also declined to serve.

Scalfaro passed away on 29 January 2012 in Rome.[5]

Honours and awards edit

As President of the Italian Republic, Scalfaro was Head of several Italian Orders from 28 May 1992 to 15 May 1999: the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the Military Order of Italy, the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, the Order of Merit for Labour and the Order of Vittorio Veneto. Personally, he was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit for School, Culture and Art on 31 July 1973.[6]

 
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro coat of arms as a knight of the Swedish Order of the Seraphim

He also received several foreign honours:

Electoral history edit

Election House Constituency Party Votes Result
1946 Constituent Assembly Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 43,218  Y Elected
1948 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 55,499  Y Elected
1953 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 44,705  Y Elected
1958 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 36,060  Y Elected
1963 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 56,987  Y Elected
1968 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 92,979  Y Elected
1972 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 114,187  Y Elected
1976 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 87,459  Y Elected
1979 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 56,815  Y Elected
1983 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 44,325  Y Elected
1987 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 91,722  Y Elected
1992 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli DC 35,630  Y Elected

References edit

  1. ^ Profile of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
  2. ^ Page at Senate website (in Italian).
  3. ^ a b Sassoon, Donald (29 January 2012). "Oscar Luigi Scalfaro obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
  4. ^ Povoledo, Elisabetta (30 January 2012). "OBITUARY; Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, 93; Led Italy at Turbulent Time". The New York Times. p. 21.
  5. ^ Barry, Colleen (20 May 2023). "Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, past president of Italy, dies at 93". Washington Post. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  6. ^ "Dettaglio decorato" (in Italian). Presidency of the Italian Republic. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  7. ^ Prime Minister of Malta Website, Honorary Appointments to the National Order of Merit Archived 7 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ BOE (27 June 1996)
  9. ^ Slovak republic website, State honours Archived 13 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine : 1st Class received in 1997 (click on "Holders of the Order of the 1st Class White Double Cross" to see the holders' table)
  10. ^ Lithuanian Presidency Archived 19 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Lithuanian Orders searching form
  11. ^ "Resolución N° 907/995". impo.com.uy. Retrieved 26 November 2020.

External links edit

  • Encyclopædia Britannica, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro - full access article
  • (in Italian) La biografia del presidente
  • Oscar Luigi Scalfaro at Find a Grave
Political offices
Preceded by Secretary of the Council of Ministers
1954–1955
Succeeded by
Carlo Russo
Preceded by Minister of Transports and Civil Aviation
1966–1968
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Transports and Civil Aviation
1972
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Riccardo Misasi
Minister of Public Education
1972–1973
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of the Interior
1983–1987
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the Chamber of Deputies
1992
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of Italy
1992–1999
Succeeded by