1. Amintore Fanfani was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War and a historical figure of the left-wing faction of Christian Democracy.
57 Facts About Amintore Fanfani
1. 2.
Amintore Fanfani is considered one of the founders of the modern Italian centre-left.
3.
Amintore Fanfani served in numerous ministerial positions, including Minister of the Interior, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Labour, Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Budget and Economic Planning.
4.
Amintore Fanfani served as President of the Italian Senate for three terms between 1968 and 1987.
5.
Amintore Fanfani was sometimes nicknamed Cavallo di Razza, thanks to his innate political ability; however, his detractors simply called him "Pony" due to his small size.
6.
Amintore Fanfani was born in Pieve Santo Stefano, in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany, in a middle-class family.
7.
Amintore Fanfani's father, Giuseppe Fanfani, was a carpenter's son who succeeded in studying and graduating in law, starting the profession of lawyer and notary; while his mother Annita Leo was a housewife.
8.
Amintore Fanfani, who was the first of nine children, grew up in an observant Catholic family.
9.
In 1920, at only 12 years old, Amintore Fanfani joined Catholic Action, of which he became a local leader after a few years.
10.
Amintore Fanfani was the author of a number of important works on economic history dealing with religion and the development of capitalism in the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe.
11.
Amintore Fanfani's thesis was published in Italian and then in English as Catholicism, Capitalism and Protestantism in 1935.
12.
Amintore Fanfani wrote for the official magazine of racism in Fascist Italy, The Defence of the Race.
13.
Amintore Fanfani became a professor at the School of Fascist Mysticism in Milan.
14.
On 22 April 1939, Amintore Fanfani married Biancarosa Provasoli, a 25-year-old lady who grew up in a bourgeois family from Milan.
15.
In Milan, Amintore Fanfani wrote "Catholicism and Protestantism in the historical development of Capitalism", in which he proposed a bold interpretation of the phenomena of capitalism, with particular reference to the conditioning of the religious factors and fundamentally disagree with the thesis of Max Weber.
16.
Until the Liberation in April 1945, Amintore Fanfani fled to Switzerland dodging military service, and organized university courses for Italian refugees.
17.
Amintore Fanfani was as one of the youngest party leaders and a protege of Alcide De Gasperi, the undisputed leader of the party for the following decade.
18.
Amintore Fanfani represented a particular ideological position, that of conservative Catholics who favoured socio-economic interventionism, which was very influential in the 1950s and 1960s but which gradually lost its appeal.
19.
Under De Gasperi, Amintore Fanfani took on a succession of ministries.
20.
On 28 February 1949, Amintore Fanfani launched a seven-year plan for popular housing to increase the stock of economic housing by means of construction or purchase of economic accommodation.
21.
Amintore Fanfani was then appointed by President Luigi Einaudi as new head of the government.
22.
Amintore Fanfani formed a one-party government composed only by members of the Christian Democracy.
23.
Amintore Fanfani chose, among others, Giulio Andreotti, another protege of De Gasperi, as Minister of the Interior, Adone Zoli as Minister of Finance and Paolo Emilio Taviani as Minister of Defence.
24.
Since De Gasperi's retirement in 1953 Amintore Fanfani emerged as the most probable successor, a role confirmed by his appointment as party secretary in June 1954, a position that he would held until March 1959.
25.
Amintore Fanfani was promoting for the office the liberal Cesare Merzagora, who was then President of the Senate.
26.
However, a government between DC and PSI was probably too premature due to the strong opposition of DC's right-wing, so, on 2 July 1958, Amintore Fanfani was sworn in as new prime minister at the head of a coalition government with the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, and a case-by-case support of the Italian Republican Party.
27.
Amintore Fanfani then decided not to resign immediately as secretary of the DC, wanting to bring the party behind him, at least until a new congress.
28.
Amintore Fanfani started an active foreign policy, along the lines of the so-called "neo-atlantism", implementing a more autonomous foreign policy from the United States, presenting Italy as the main regional power of the Mediterranean Basin, trying to avoid the increase of Soviet Union's sphere of influence over the Arab countries.
29.
In January 1959, a conspicuous group of Christian Democrats started voting against their own government, forcing Amintore Fanfani to resign on 26 January 1959, after only six months in power.
30.
In March 1959, Amintore Fanfani resigned as party's secretary too, and Aldo Moro became the new leader.
31.
In party's congress in October 1959, Moro was slightly confirmed secretary, after a thought battle with Amintore Fanfani, who was defeated thanks to the decisive vote of the right-wing faction of Mario Scelba and Giulio Andreotti.
32.
On 26 July 1960, Amintore Fanfani returned to the premiership, this time with an openly centre-left program supported by the PSI abstention.
33.
In February 1962, after the national congress of the Christian Democracy, Amintore Fanfani reorganised his cabinet and gained the benign abstention of the socialist leader Pietro Nenni.
34.
On 12 August 1962, Amintore Fanfani introduced a supplementary pension payment, equal to one-twelfth of the annual amount of pension minima, while introducing child supplements for pensioners.
35.
Amintore Fanfani tried to be elected president, running against DC's official candidate, Giovanni Leone.
36.
In March 1965, Amintore Fanfani was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, during the second government of Aldo Moro.
37.
Amintore Fanfani continued implementing his pro-Arab policies in the Mediterranean Sea, and tried to build a closer relation with China.
38.
On 26 September 1968, Amintore Fanfani lost his wife, Biancarosa, who died of cerebral venous thrombosis, at only 54-year-old.
39.
Amintore Fanfani retired after several unsuccessful ballots and, at the twenty-third round, Giovanni Leone, who was Amintore Fanfani's rival in the 1964 election, was finally elected with a centre-right majority.
40.
In June 1973 Amintore Fanfani was elected secretary of the Christian Democracy for a second term, replacing his former protege Arnaldo Forlani, who was now a supporter of centrist policies.
41.
Amintore Fanfani thought that a "no" victory could have given him the control of in his own party again; in fact other key figures like Moro, Rumor, Emilio Colombo and Francesco Cossiga, who believed in the defeat at the referendum, kept a low profile during the campaign.
42.
On 3 August 1975, Amintore Fanfani married his second wife, Maria Pia Vecchi, a widow and strong-willed woman engaged in multiple voluntary activities, nationally and internationally.
43.
On 5 July 1976, Amintore Fanfani was elected President of the Senate for a second term, a position that he held until 1 December 1982.
44.
Amintore Fanfani was the only Christian Democratic leader to be allowed by Moro's family to participate to the funeral.
45.
Amintore Fanfani, who was still serving as President of the Senate, received the task from President Sandro Pertini of forming a new government and sworn in on 1 December 1982.
46.
Amintore Fanfani resigned on 29 April 1983, when, after months of tense relations in the majority, the central committee of the Socialist Party, meeting on 22 April, decided the withdrew its support to the government, calling for new elections.
47.
Amintore Fanfani's candidacy was endorsed by the DC, but supported by communists, socialists, social democrats, liberals and republicans.
48.
On 9 July 1985, Amintore Fanfani was re-elected President of the Senate, for a third term.
49.
Amintore Fanfani presented his resignation after only 11 days as head of government, causing the early dissolution of the houses.
50.
Amintore Fanfani would remain in office until 29 July 1987, when after a general election, a new government was formed with Giovanni Goria at its head.
51.
In Goria's cabinet, Amintore Fanfani was appointed Minister of the Interior, however the government fell in April 1988, after the PSI withdrew its support in opposition to the reopening of the Montalto di Castro nuclear power plant, decided by the government.
52.
Ciriaco De Mita became the new prime minister and Amintore Fanfani held the office of Minister of Budget and Economic Planning.
53.
In 1992, Amintore Fanfani was elected to the prestigious office of chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate and held the role until 1994.
54.
Amintore Fanfani died in Rome on 20 November 1999, at the age 91.
55.
Amintore Fanfani had always believed in the corporate state, considering Fascism only as a "temporary aberration" of corporatism.
56.
Amintore Fanfani never tried to hide his fascist past, but unlike many Italians, he freely admitted that he was wrong.
57.
Amintore Fanfani held all positions and offices that a politician could possibly aspire to, except the one he craved most, the presidency of the Republic.