5 most famous Italian politicians

Italian institutional history is characterized by various phenomena that have determined its politics. From 1861 to today, the different moments in Italian history can be divided into:

• Monarchy from 1861 to 1946 which we can divide into 3 phases.
  • The Liberal period from 1861 to 1925. With the Constitution of the Kingdom of Italy, until Mussolini’s speech on January 3, 1925;
  • Liberation from 1943 to 1945 with the defeat of the fascist forces;
  • Liberation period from 1943 to 1945 with the defeat of the fascist forces.
• Republic period since 1946 with the referendum that leads to the birth of a new Constitution in 1948.

With the  Kingdom of Italy, a bipartisan dynamic spread in the parliament. The right and the left parties were facing each other. With the fall of the regime, Italy became a Republic. The political forces were existing in Italy at that time.  The three mass parties were:  Christian Democrats, the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Communist Party. Many charismatic and enlightened minds influenced Italian politics over time. These minds are still well known today. Thanks to their help the country obtained success all over the world. Let’s see together who the 5 most famous Italian politicians are, and their history!

Enrico Berlinguer: the moral and political duty

Enrico Berlinguer by Unknown author – Wikimedia Commons

Enrico Berlinguer was an Italian politician. Born in Sassari on 25 May 1922 and died in Padua on 11 June 1984. He joined the Communist Party in 1943 and 1962 he joined the Italian Communist Party as secretary. In 1972 he was then elected general secretary of the party. Thanks to him, an alternative model was created which took the name of Eurocommunism.  Berlinguer’s policy was moral. He wanted to denounce the inefficiency of the democratic Italian system. Here is a sentence from Berlinguer:

“If young people organize themselves, take possession of every branch of knowledge and fight with the workers and the oppressed, there is no escape for an old order founded on privilege and injustice“.

Giorgio Almirante: the reformer

Almirante by Unknown Author – Wikimedia Commons

Almirante was an Italian politician born in Salsomaggiore Terme on June 27, 1914 and died in Rome on May 22, 1988. In the immediate post-war period, he was with the founders of the fascist-inspired party Movimento Sociale Italiano in 1946. He became a deputy from 1948 and secretary of the MSI in 1947-1950 and then in 1969-1987. In 1972, with the merger with the monarchists, he changed the name of his party to that of MSI – National Right. Throughout its political history, it has fought for institutional reforms. But above all to have an Italian political system transformed into a presidential republic and to put an end to the law on abortion. Here is a sentence from Almirante:

“We fell and got up several times. And if the opponent laughs at our falls, we trust in our ability to recover. In other times we got up for ourselves, for some time we got up for you, young people, to greet you standing up at the moment of farewell, to send you the relay before it falls from our hands, as others fell when it was about to pass it on”.

Bettino Craxi: the most important Italian politician of the 1980s

Bettino Craxi by Unknown Author – Wikimedia Commons

Bettino Craxi was an Italian politician born in Milan on February 24, 1934, and died in Hammamet on January 19, 2000. He became President of the Council of Ministers from 4 August 1983 to 18 April 1987 and later became Secretary of the Italian Socialist Party from 15 July 1976 to 11 February 1993. Bettino Craxi was one of the most important politicians of the Italian Republic. Besides, he was also the first socialist to have held the office of Prime Minister. Here is a sentence of Craxi:

“When judges proclaim themselves priests of a “revolution” when they appeal to the sentiments of the square, incited by those who have a specific reason for doing so, justice has already lost its virtues, which are objectivity, truth, balance, serenity and humanity”.

Giulio Andreotti: a multi-faceted politician

Andreotti by Unknown Author – Wikimedia Commons

Giulio Andreotti was an Italian politician born in Rome on January 14, 1919, and died in Rome on May 6, 2013. Andreotti was introduced to the political scene thanks to De Gasperi who wanted him in his government as undersecretary. Andreotti became part of the fourth De Gasperi government and was then elected in 1948 to the Chamber of Deputies. He was one of the main exponents of the Christian Democrats, a leading party for most of the second half of the twentieth century. In 1972, Giulio Andreotti becomes Prime Minister for the first time, a position he will hold until 1973. The first government did not win the trust and was forced to resign after nine days. In 1991 he was appointed senator for life by the President of the Republic Francesco Cossiga. Andreotti was Prime Minister seven times and Minister of the Republic thirty-two times. Without forgetting additional assignments received that we will not list as there are so many.  Here is a sentence from Andreotti:  

“Never forget that you are elected to operate, and you do not work to be elected. The confusion of ends would be harmful. ”

Silvio Berlusconi: the knight

Berlusconi by Off2riorob – Wikimedia Commons

Silvio Berlusconi is an Italian politician born in Milan on September 29, 1936. In addition to being a politician, he is also a famous entrepreneur known throughout Italy as “the knight” thanks to the honour of “knight of labour” received in 1976 by the President of the Republic Leone. Only in 1974, he created the finance company Fininvest and in 1993 the multimedia production company Mediaset, in which other companies such as Arnoldo Mondadori Editore converge. But in October 1992  he entered politics by launching the centre-right political party known as “Forza Italia”. Berlusconi was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in March 1994. But he was also then confirmed for the following four legislatures. He was the elected senator for the first time at Palazzo Madama and obtained four positions as a prime minister. He is believed to have an estimated personal wealth of € 6.8 billion. In 2018 he became the fifth richest man in Italy. Here is a quote from Berlusconi:

“Freedom is the essence of man,  of his mind and heart, of his intelligence and his feelings. Freedom is what underlies his ability to love, to create, to do; and a man is not a man if he is not free, because God wanted him free. ”