Alcide De Gasperi
Encyclopedia
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. A conservative Catholic, he was one of the Founding fathers of the European Union
, along with the Frenchman
Robert Schuman
and the German Konrad Adenauer
.
in Tyrol
, which at that time belonged to Austria-Hungary
, now part of the Trentino in Italy. His father was a local police officer of limited financial means. From 1896 De Gasperi was active in the Social Christian movement. In 1900 he joined the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy in Vienna
, where he played an important role in the inception of the Christian student movement. He was very much inspired by the Rerum Novarum
encyclical
issued by Pope Leo XIII
in 1891. In 1904 he took an active part in the student demonstrations in favour of an Italian-language university. Imprisoned with other protesters during the inauguration of the Italian juridical faculty in Innsbruck
, he was released after twenty days. In 1905, De Gasperi obtained a degree in philology
.
In 1905 he began to work as editor of the newspaper La Voce Cattolica which was replaced in September 1906 by Il Trentino, and after a short time he became its editor. In his newspaper he often took positions in favour of a cultural autonomy
for Trentino and in defence of Italian culture in Trentino, in contrast to the Germanisation
plans of the German radical nationalists in Tyrol
. However, he never questioned whether or not Trentino should belong to Austria–Hungary and claimed that, in the case of a referendum, 90% of the Trentino would nevertheless choose the popular Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria
over the Italian motherland.
In 1911 he became a Member of Parliament for the Popular Political Union of Trentine ( – UPPT) in the Austria
n Reichsrat
, a post he held for 6 years. He was politically neutral during World War I, which he spent in Vienna
. However, he sympathized with the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of pope Benedict XV
(1914–1922) and Bl.
Karl I of Austria
to obtain an honourable peace and stop the war and mass warfare. When his home region was transferred to Italy in the post-war settlement, he accepted Italian citizenship.
. He served as a deputy in the Italian Parliament from 1921 to 1924, a period marked by the rise of Fascism
. He initially supported the participation of the PPI in Benito Mussolini
’s first government in October 1922.
As Mussolini's hold on the Italian government grew stronger, he soon diverged with the Fascists over constitutional changes to the powers of the executive and to the election system (the Acerbo Law
), and to Fascist violence against the constitutional parties, culminating in the murder of Giacomo Matteotti
. The PPI split, and De Gasperi became secretary of the remaining anti-Fascist group in May 1924. In November 1926, in a climate of overt violence and intimidation by the Fascists, the PPI was dissolved.
De Gasperi was arrested in March 1927 and sentenced to four years in prison. The Vatican
negotiated his release. A year and a half in prison nearly broke De Gasperi's health. After his release in July 1928, he was unemployed and in serious financial hardship, until in 1929 his ecclesiastical contacts secured him a job as a cataloguer in the Vatican Library, where he spent the next fourteen years until the collapse of Fascism in July 1943.
De Gasperi was the undisputed head of the Christian Democrats, the party that dominated Parliament for the next decades. Although his control of the DC appeared almost complete, he had to carefully balance of different factions and interests, especially over relations with the Vatican, over social reform, and over foreign policy.
. In the same years, Italy also became a member of the European Coal and Steel Community
(ECSC), which eventually transformed into the European Union
(EU).
After the liberation of Italy in June 1944, he had served as minister without portfolio and then as foreign minister. In December 1945, he became Prime Minister for the first time, leading a coalition government that included the Italian Communist Party
(PCI) and Italian Socialist Party
(PSI). Communist party leader Palmiro Togliatti
acted as vice-premier. He tried soften the terms of the pending Allied peace
treaty with Italy and secured financial and economic aid through the European Recovery Program (Marshal Plan) – which was opposed by the Communists.
In June 1946 a referendum was held to decide whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. The republican option won with 54%. (See: Birth of the Italian Republic
) As chief of the Italian delegation at the World War II peace conference in Paris, he obtained concessions from the Allies that guaranteed Italian sovereignty. Under the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947, the eastern border area was lost to Yugoslavia
and the free territory of Trieste
was divided between the two states.
One his most striking achievements in foreign policy was the Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement
with Austria in September 1946 that established his home region, southern Tirol, as an autonomous region.
– the owner of Time Magazine – and his wife Clare Boothe Luce
the future ambassador to Rome, was viewed as a media "triumph," prompting positive comments of a wide section of the American press.
During his meetings in the US, he managed to secure a financially modest but politically significant US$100 million Eximbank loan to Italy. According to De Gasperi, public opinion would view the loan as a vote of confidence in the Italian Government and strengthen his position versus the Communist Party in the context of the emerging Cold War. The positive results strengthened De Gasperi’s reputation in Italy. He also came back with useful information on the incipient change in American foreign policy that would lead to the Cold War and in Italy the break with the Communists and left-wing Socialists and their removal from the government in the May 1947 crisis
.
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 Catholic Church in Italy worked hard to encourage people to vote against communist candidates. 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.
In the US a campaign was launched to prevent a victory of the Communist dominated Popular Democratic Front (FDP – ). Italian-Americans were encouraged to write letters to their relatives in Italy. The popular Italian-American singer Frank Sinatra
made a Voice of America
radio broadcast. The Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) funneled "black bag" contributions to anti-communist candidates with the approval of the National Security Council
and President Truman
. Joseph P. Kennedy and Claire Booth Luce helped to raise US$2 million for the Christian Democrat Party. Time Magazine backed the campaign and featured De Gasperi on its April 19, 1948 issue’s cover and in its lead story. (He would appear on a Time cover again on May 25, 1953, during the campaign for that year's election, with an extensive biography.)
The Christian Democrats won a resounding victory with 48 percent of the vote (their best result ever). The communists received only half of the votes they had in 1946. The Christian Democrats won a parliamentary majority, and De Gasperi formed a new centre-right government. In the following five years De Gasperi continued to run the country. "De Gasperi’s policy is patience," according to the foreign news correspondent for the New York Times, Anne McCormick
. "He seems to be feeling his way among the explosive problems he has to deal with, but perhaps this wary mine-detecting method is the stabilizing force that holds the country in balance."
When the Christian Democrats did not gain a majority in the elections of 1953
, De Gasperi was unable to establish a workable government and was forced to resign as Prime Minister. The following year he also had to give up the leadership of the party.
Two months later, on August 19, 1954, he died in Sella di Valsugana, in his beloved Trentino. He is buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, a basilica in Rome. The process for his beatification
was opened in 1993.
"De Gasperi was against exacerbating conflict," according to his former secretary and former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti
. "He taught us to search for compromise, to mediate."
He is considered to be one of the Founding fathers of the European Union
. From the very beginning of European integration, De Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer met regularly. He helped organize the Council of Europe
and supported to the Schumann Plan, which in 1951 led to the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community
(ECSC) – a forerunner in the process of European integration. He was named president of the Community in 1954, and although the project eventually failed, De Gasperi helped develop the idea of the common European defence policy. In 1952 he received the Karlspreis
(International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen), an award by the German city of Aachen
to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace.
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Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
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. A conservative Catholic, he was one of the Founding fathers of the European Union
Founding fathers of the European Union
The Founding Fathers of the European Union are a number of men who have been recognised as making a major contribution to the development of European unity and what is now the European Union. There is no official list of founding fathers or a single event defining them so some ideas vary.-Europe's...
, along with the Frenchman
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman was a noted Luxembourgish-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat and an independent political thinker and activist...
and the German Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
.
Early years
De Gasperi was born in Pieve TesinoPieve Tesino
Pieve Tesino is a comune in Trentino in the northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 40 km east of Trento....
in Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
, which at that time belonged to Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, now part of the Trentino in Italy. His father was a local police officer of limited financial means. From 1896 De Gasperi was active in the Social Christian movement. In 1900 he joined the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where he played an important role in the inception of the Christian student movement. He was very much inspired by the Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. The encyclical is entitled: “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour”...
encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
issued by Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
in 1891. In 1904 he took an active part in the student demonstrations in favour of an Italian-language university. Imprisoned with other protesters during the inauguration of the Italian juridical faculty in Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
, he was released after twenty days. In 1905, De Gasperi obtained a degree in philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
.
In 1905 he began to work as editor of the newspaper La Voce Cattolica which was replaced in September 1906 by Il Trentino, and after a short time he became its editor. In his newspaper he often took positions in favour of a cultural autonomy
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
for Trentino and in defence of Italian culture in Trentino, in contrast to the Germanisation
Germanisation
Germanisation is both the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, and the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet...
plans of the German radical nationalists in Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
. However, he never questioned whether or not Trentino should belong to Austria–Hungary and claimed that, in the case of a referendum, 90% of the Trentino would nevertheless choose the popular Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
over the Italian motherland.
In 1911 he became a Member of Parliament for the Popular Political Union of Trentine ( – UPPT) in the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n Reichsrat
Reichsrat (Austria)
The Imperial Council of Austria from 1867 to 1918 was the parliament of the Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of the Herrenhaus and the Abgeordnetenhaus...
, a post he held for 6 years. He was politically neutral during World War I, which he spent in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. However, he sympathized with the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...
(1914–1922) and Bl.
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
Karl I of Austria
Karl I of Austria
Charles I of Austria or Charles IV of Hungary was the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the last Emperor of Austria, the last King of Hungary, the last King of Bohemia and Croatia and the last King of Galicia and Lodomeria and the last monarch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine...
to obtain an honourable peace and stop the war and mass warfare. When his home region was transferred to Italy in the post-war settlement, he accepted Italian citizenship.
Opposing Fascism
In 1919 he was among of the founders of the Italian People's Party ( – PPI), with Don Luigi SturzoLuigi 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...
. He served as a deputy in the Italian Parliament from 1921 to 1924, a period marked by the rise of Fascism
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...
. He initially supported the participation of the PPI in Benito Mussolini
Benito 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 first government in October 1922.
As Mussolini's hold on the Italian government grew stronger, he soon diverged with the Fascists over constitutional changes to the powers of the executive and to the election system (the Acerbo Law
Acerbo Law
The Acerbo Law was an Italian electoral law proposed by Baron Giacomo Acerbo and passed by the Italian Parliament in 1924. The purpose of it was to give Mussolini's fascist party a majority of deputies.-Background:...
), and to Fascist violence against the constitutional parties, culminating in the murder of Giacomo Matteotti
Giacomo Matteotti
Giacomo Matteotti was an Italian socialist politician. On 30 May 1924, he openly spoke in the Italian Parliament alleging the Fascists committed fraud in the recently held elections, and denounced the violence they used to gain votes...
. The PPI split, and De Gasperi became secretary of the remaining anti-Fascist group in May 1924. In November 1926, in a climate of overt violence and intimidation by the Fascists, the PPI was dissolved.
De Gasperi was arrested in March 1927 and sentenced to four years in prison. The Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
negotiated his release. A year and a half in prison nearly broke De Gasperi's health. After his release in July 1928, he was unemployed and in serious financial hardship, until in 1929 his ecclesiastical contacts secured him a job as a cataloguer in the Vatican Library, where he spent the next fourteen years until the collapse of Fascism in July 1943.
Founding the Christian Democrat Party
During World War II, he organized the establishment of the first (and at the time, illegal) Christian Democracy party, or Democrazia Cristiana, drawing upon the ideology of the Popular Party. In January 1943, he published "Ideas for reconstruction" which amounted to a party programme for the party. He became the first general secretary of the new party in 1944.De Gasperi was the undisputed head of the Christian Democrats, the party that dominated Parliament for the next decades. Although his control of the DC appeared almost complete, he had to carefully balance of different factions and interests, especially over relations with the Vatican, over social reform, and over foreign policy.
Prime Minister
From 1945 to 1953 he was the prime minister of eight successive Christian Democratic governments. His eight-year rule remains a landmark of political longevity for one leader in modern Italian politics. During his successive governments Italy became a Republic (1946), signed a Peace Treaty with the Allies (1947), a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and an ally of the United States, which helped to revive the Italian economy through the Marshall PlanMarshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
. In the same years, Italy also became a member of the European Coal and Steel Community
European Coal and Steel Community
The European Coal and Steel Community was a six-nation international organisation serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for the modern-day developments of the European Union...
(ECSC), which eventually transformed into the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(EU).
After the liberation of Italy in June 1944, he had served as minister without portfolio and then as foreign minister. In December 1945, he became Prime Minister for the first time, leading a coalition government that included the 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) and 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...
(PSI). Communist party leader Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti was an Italian politician and leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 until his death.-Early life:...
acted as vice-premier. He tried soften the terms of the pending Allied peace
treaty with Italy and secured financial and economic aid through the European Recovery Program (Marshal Plan) – which was opposed by the Communists.
In June 1946 a referendum was held to decide whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. The republican option won with 54%. (See: Birth of the Italian Republic
Birth of the Italian Republic
The Italian constitutional referendum which officially took place on 2 June 1946, is a key event of Italian contemporary history. Until 1946, Italy was a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy, kings of Italy since the Risorgimento and previously rulers of Savoy...
) As chief of the Italian delegation at the World War II peace conference in Paris, he obtained concessions from the Allies that guaranteed Italian sovereignty. Under the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947, the eastern border area was lost to Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
and the free territory of Trieste
Trieste
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...
was divided between the two states.
One his most striking achievements in foreign policy was the Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement
Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement
The Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement, named after the foreign ministers of Austria and Italy , of September 1946, allowed Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol to remain part of Italy, but ensured its autonomy....
with Austria in September 1946 that established his home region, southern Tirol, as an autonomous region.
American support
De Gasperi enjoyed considerable support in the US, where he was seen as the man who could oppose the rising tide of Communism – in particular the PCI, which was the biggest communist party in a Western European democracy. In January 1947 he visited the US. The chief goals of the trip were to soften the terms of the pending peace treaty with Italy, and to obtain immediate economic assistance. His ten-day tour, engineered by media mogul Henry LuceHenry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce was an influential American publisher. He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of upscale Americans...
– the owner of Time Magazine – and his wife Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce
Clare Boothe Luce was an American playwright, editor, journalist, ambassador, socialite and U.S. Congresswoman, representing the state of Connecticut.-Early life:...
the future ambassador to Rome, was viewed as a media "triumph," prompting positive comments of a wide section of the American press.
During his meetings in the US, he managed to secure a financially modest but politically significant US$100 million Eximbank loan to Italy. According to De Gasperi, public opinion would view the loan as a vote of confidence in the Italian Government and strengthen his position versus the Communist Party in the context of the emerging Cold War. The positive results strengthened De Gasperi’s reputation in Italy. He also came back with useful information on the incipient change in American foreign policy that would lead to the Cold War and in Italy the break with the Communists and left-wing Socialists and their removal from the government in the May 1947 crisis
May 1947 crisis
The May 1947 Crisis of Italy was when the Communist Party of Italy was thrown out of government. The Christian Democrats led by Alcide De Gasperi were becoming increasingly unpopular, and were afraid that the Left Coalition would take power....
.
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 Catholic Church in Italy worked hard to encourage people to vote against communist candidates. 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.
In the US a campaign was launched to prevent a victory of the Communist dominated Popular Democratic Front (FDP – ). Italian-Americans were encouraged to write letters to their relatives in Italy. The popular Italian-American singer Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
made a Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
radio broadcast. The Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) funneled "black bag" contributions to anti-communist candidates with the approval of the National Security Council
National Security Council
A National Security Council is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security...
and President Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
. Joseph P. Kennedy and Claire Booth Luce helped to raise US$2 million for the Christian Democrat Party. Time Magazine backed the campaign and featured De Gasperi on its April 19, 1948 issue’s cover and in its lead story. (He would appear on a Time cover again on May 25, 1953, during the campaign for that year's election, with an extensive biography.)
The Christian Democrats won a resounding victory with 48 percent of the vote (their best result ever). The communists received only half of the votes they had in 1946. The Christian Democrats won a parliamentary majority, and De Gasperi formed a new centre-right government. In the following five years De Gasperi continued to run the country. "De Gasperi’s policy is patience," according to the foreign news correspondent for the New York Times, Anne McCormick
Anne O'Hare McCormick
Anne O'Hare McCormick was a foreign news correspondent for the New York Times, in an era where the field was almost exclusively "a man's world". In 1937, she won the Pulitzer Prize for correspondence, becoming the first woman to receive a major category Pulitzer award...
. "He seems to be feeling his way among the explosive problems he has to deal with, but perhaps this wary mine-detecting method is the stabilizing force that holds the country in balance."
Death and legacy
In 1952, the party overwhelmingly endorsed his authority over the government and over the party. However, it was also the start of his decline. He came under increasing criticism from the emerging left wing in the party. Their main accusations were that he was too cautious in social and economic reform, that he stifled debate, and that he subordinated the party to the interests of government.When the Christian Democrats did not gain a majority in the elections of 1953
Italian general election, 1953
The Italian elections of 1953 were held on June 7. They were a test for leading centrist coalition ruled by Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi. Italian electors chose the second Parliament of the Italian Republic.-The Scam Law:...
, De Gasperi was unable to establish a workable government and was forced to resign as Prime Minister. The following year he also had to give up the leadership of the party.
Two months later, on August 19, 1954, he died in Sella di Valsugana, in his beloved Trentino. He is buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, a basilica in Rome. The process for his beatification
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
was opened in 1993.
"De Gasperi was against exacerbating conflict," according to his former secretary and former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
. "He taught us to search for compromise, to mediate."
He is considered to be one of the Founding fathers of the European Union
Founding fathers of the European Union
The Founding Fathers of the European Union are a number of men who have been recognised as making a major contribution to the development of European unity and what is now the European Union. There is no official list of founding fathers or a single event defining them so some ideas vary.-Europe's...
. From the very beginning of European integration, De Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer met regularly. He helped organize the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
and supported to the Schumann Plan, which in 1951 led to the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community
European Coal and Steel Community
The European Coal and Steel Community was a six-nation international organisation serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for the modern-day developments of the European Union...
(ECSC) – a forerunner in the process of European integration. He was named president of the Community in 1954, and although the project eventually failed, De Gasperi helped develop the idea of the common European defence policy. In 1952 he received the Karlspreis
Karlspreis
- See also :*Charlemagne*European integration*Leipzig Human Rights Award, originally called the "Alternative Charlemagne Award", formed in opposition to Clinton's recognition with the award- External links :* http://www.karlspreis.de/ *...
(International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen), an award by the German city of Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace.
Further reading
- Cau, Maurizio. "Alcide De Gasperi: a political thinker or a thinking politician?" Modern Italy Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 431–45
- Bigaran, Mariapia. "Alcide De Gasperi: the apprenticeship of a political leader," Modern Italy Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 415–30
- Duggan, Christopher. Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796 (2008) ch 27–28
- Lorenzini, Sara. "The roots of a 'statesman': De Gasperi's foreign policy," Modern Italy Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 473–84
- Pombeni, Paolo, and Giuliana Nobili Schiera. "Alcide de Gasperi: 1881-1954-a political life in a troubled century," Modern Italy Nov2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 379–401
In Italian
- Pietro Scoppola, La proposta politica di De Gasperi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1977.
- Giulio AndreottiGiulio AndreottiGiulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
, Intervista su De Gasperi; a cura di Antonio Gambino, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1977. - Giulio AndreottiGiulio AndreottiGiulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
, De Gasperi visto da vicino, Milano, Rizzoli, 1986. - Nico PerroneNico PerroneNico Perrone is an Italian essayist, historian and journalist. He firstly discovered papers on the plot for killing Enrico Mattei, the Italian state tycoon for oil in the 1950s....
, De Gasperi e l'America, Palermo, Sellerio, 1995. - Alcide De Gasperi: un percorso europeo, a cura di Eckart Conze, Gustavo Corni, Paolo Pombeni, Bologna, Il mulino, 2004.
- Piero Craveri, De Gasperi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2006
External links
- Alcide De Gasperi Foundation
- Alcide De Gasperi Archives, Historical Archives of the European Union, European University Institute De Gasperi: un politico europeo venuto dal futuro, Centro Studi Malfatti
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