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Giuseppe Saragat

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Giuseppe Saragat
Official portrait, 1971
Official portrait, 1971
President of Italy
In office
29 December 1964 – 29 December 1971
Prime Minister Aldo Moro
Giovanni Leone
Mariano Rumor
Emilio Colombo
Preceded by Antonio Segni
Succeeded by Giovanni Leone
President of the Constituent Assembly
In office
25 June 1946 – 6 February 1947
Preceded by Office established
Succeeded by Umberto Terracini
Ministerial offices
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
4 December 1963 – 22 July 1964
Prime Minister
Aldo Moro
Preceded by
Attilio Piccioni
Succeeded by
Aldo Moro
Deputy Prime Minister of Italy
In office
10 February 1954 – 19 May 1957
Prime Minister
Mario Scelba
Antonio Segni
Preceded by
Attilio Piccioni
Succeeded by
Giuseppe Pella
In office
1 June 1947 – 27 January 1950
Prime Minister
Alcide De Gasperi
Preceded by
Office established
Succeeded by
Attilio Piccioni
Parliamentary offices
Member of the Senate of the Republic
Ex officio
Life tenure
29 December 1971 – 11 June 1988
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
8 May 1948 – 29 December 1964
Constituency
Turin–Novara–Vercelli
Member of the Constituent Assembly
In office
25 June 1946 – 31 January 1948
Constituency
Rome
Personal details
Born 19 September 1898
Turin, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy
Died 11 June 1988 (aged 89)
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Resting place Campo Verano, Rome
Party PSU (1922–1930)
PSI (1930–1947)
PSDI (1947–1988)
Spouse Giuseppina Bollani
(m. 1926; died 1961)[1]
Children 2
Alma mater University of Turin

Giuseppe Saragat (Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈsaːraɡat] ⓘ; 19 September 1898 – 11 June 1988)[2] was an Italian politician and statesman who served as President of Italy from 1964 to 1971.

Early and personal life

Saragat was born on 19 September 1898 in Turin, in the region of Piedmont, to Sardinian parents Giovanni Saragat (1855–1938), of Catalan descent, and Ernestina Stratta (1872–1965). He had an older brother, Eugenio "Ennio" (1897–1929), and a younger brother, Pietro (1899–1938). His grandfather's surname was originally Saragattu-Mulinas, but was later shortened.[3]

Graduating in accountancy in 1915, Saragat took part in World War I as an artillery lieutenant of the Royal Italian Army on the Karst Plateau. After the war, he graduated in Economy and Commerce from the University of Turin in 1920, and became employed in banking.[3]

In January 1926, Saragat married Milanese seamstress Giuseppina Bollani (1898–1961), with whom he had two children: Giovanni (1926–2007) and Ernestina "Tina" (b. 1928). Due to political persecution, he fled to Vienna in 1926 (joined by his wife in 1927) and then to France in 1929.[3]

Political career

In 1922, Saragat joined the Unitary Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Unitario; PSU) under the influence of Piero Gobetti, and began collaborating with Claudio Treves' journal La Giustizia. He was arrested twice in 1923 and 1924, and after Fascist Italy outlawed the Socialist Party in 1925, Saragat secretly co-founded the Socialist Party of Italian Workers (Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani; PSLI) alongside Treves and Carlo Rosselli.[3]

Following the final dissolution of the PSU in 1930, Saragat joined the Italian Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano, PSI). A reformist, he was a democratic socialist who left the PSI in 1947 out of concern over its then-close alliance with the Italian Communist Party. He subsequently refounded the PSLI, which in 1952 became the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano; PSDI). He was to be the paramount leader of the PSDI for the rest of his life.[4]

In 1944, Saragat had been a minister without portfolio and ambassador in Paris from 1945 to 1946, before he was appointed president of the Constituent Assembly of Italy that same year upon the establishment of the Italian Republic. He was minister of foreign affairs in the Moro I Cabinet and Moro II Cabinet, headed by Christian Democracy leader Aldo Moro from 1963 to late 1964, when he was chosen as President of the Italian Republic. His election demonstrated a rare instance of unity among the Italian left and followed rumours of a possible neo-fascist coup, Piano Solo, during Antonio Segni's presidency.[4][5]

Saragat died in Rome, Lazio, on 11 June 1988. An atheist,[1] he is said to have become a Catholic in his later life, and had a religious funeral.[6]

Electoral history

Election House Constituency Party Votes Result
1946 Constituent Assembly Rome–Viterbo–Latina–Frosinone PSIUP 29,981 Elected
1948 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli US 31,988 Elected
1953 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli PSDI 16,833 Elected
1958 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli PSDI 12,484 Elected
1963 Chamber of Deputies Turin–Novara–Vercelli PSDI 24,539 Elected

Presidential elections

1964 presidential election (21st ballot)
Candidate Supported by Votes %
Giuseppe Saragat PSDI, DC, PSI, PCI, PRI 646 67.1
Gaetano Martino PLI 56 5.8
Augusto De Marsanich MSI, PDIUM 40 4.1
Others / Invalid votes 185 19.2
Total 927 100.0

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Vespa, Bruno (7 October 2010). L'amore e il potere: da Rachele a Veronica, un secolo di storia italiana (in Italian). Milan: Mondadori. ISBN 978-88-520-1203-7. Retrieved 14 August 2018 – via Google Books.
  2. Back to citation Rizzo, Tito Lucrezio (23 October 2012). Parla il Capo dello Stato: sessanta anni di vita repubblicana attraverso il Quirinale 1946-2006 (in Italian). Rome: Gangemi. ISBN 978-88-492-7460-8. Retrieved 14 August 2018 – via Google Books.
  3. Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 Back to citation occurrence 3.2 Back to citation occurrence 3.3 Carrattieri, Mirco (2017). "SARAGAT, Giuseppe". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 90. Treccani.
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 "Saragat, Giuseppe". Dizionario di Storia (in Italian). Treccani. 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  5. Back to citation Hevesi, Dennis (12 June 1988). "Giuseppe Saragat Is Dead at 89; President of Italy From '64 to '71". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  6. Back to citation Rizzi, Filippo (13 April 2010). "Padre Rotondi e la "conversione" di Saragat". Avvenire (in Italian). Retrieved 23 April 2023.