21 Facts About Arnaldo Forlani

Arnaldo Forlani held the office of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Defence.

Arnaldo Forlani led the DC party on two occasions: between 1969 and 1973, and between 1989 and 1992.

Arnaldo Forlani was born on 8 December 1925, in Pesaro, Marche.

In 1948, after getting a degree in law at the University of Urbino and being elected comunal and provincial councilor, Arnaldo Forlani began his political career, holding the position of provincial secretary of Christian Democracy for Pesaro.

Arnaldo Forlani soon became one of the closest collaborators of Amintore Fanfani, as an exponent of the Nuove Cronache DC current, of which Arnaldo Forlani became its number two in 1959.

Arnaldo Forlani held this position for seven years, until 1969, under the secretariat of Mariano Rumor and Flaminio Piccoli.

In September 1969, in San Ginesio he stipulated, together with Ciriaco de Mita, the "Pact of San Ginesio" to lead the Christian Democracy party, which materialized when two months later, on 9 November 1969, Arnaldo Forlani became Secretary of the DC and De Mita, its vice-secretary.

Arnaldo Forlani assumed the leadership of the party in a moment of social instability provoked by the mobilizations in the universities and factories, for which he drafted the Preambolo, to ask the Italian Socialist Party to be part of a center-left government in order to break all relations with the communists in the municipal administrations and the trade unions.

The reasons of this important nomination were firstly the necessity to recover a climate of unity in the party after the congressional divisions and secondly the opportunity, in a world still marked by the Cold War, to allocate foreign policy to a clearly anti-communist personality, as Arnaldo Forlani was, able to calm the European and US partners.

In 1980, Arnaldo Forlani was among the main sponsor of Flaminio Piccoli in the party congress.

Arnaldo Forlani's government spent 59 trillion lire on reconstruction, while other nations sent contributions.

Arnaldo Forlani was therefore compelled to resign from the position, staying away from the spotlight of politics for a certain period.

In 1982, Arnaldo Forlani tried again to become DC Secretary, but he was defeated by his former deputy secretary Ciriaco De Mita, who was now supported by Fanfani.

In 1983 the Socialist leader Bettino Craxi was appointed prime minister by President Sandro Pertini and Arnaldo Forlani became his deputy prime minister.

Arnaldo Forlani managed as secretary the long government crisis that followed the 19 May 1989 resignation of Ciriaco de Mita as prime minister after strong contrasts with Bettino Craxi.

Arnaldo Forlani was Member of the European Parliament in its third legislature, between 1989 and 1994.

However, during the 5th and 6th ballots, held on 16 May 1992, Arnaldo Forlani missed the election by 39 and 29 votes respectively.

Arnaldo Forlani's testimony ended up being remembered for his ruthless and uncooperative response to the prosecuting lawyer's questions during the hearings.

Arnaldo Forlani did not stand for re-election as deputy in the general election of 1994, ending an uninterrupted parliamentary career that began in 1958.

Arnaldo Forlani married Alma Maria, from whom he was widowed on 6 October 2015 when she died at the age of 86.

Arnaldo Forlani died on 6 July 2023 in his house of Rome at the age of 97.