Giorgio Napolitano
Encyclopedia
Giorgio Napolitano (ˈdʒordʒo napoliˈtaːno; born 29 June 1925) is an Italian
politician who has been the 11th President of Italy since 2006. A long-time member of the Italian Communist Party
and later the Democrats of the Left
, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies
from 1992 to 1994 and as Minister of the Interior
from 1996 to 1998.
Appointed as a Senator for life
in 2005, he was subsequently elected as President of Italy
on 10 May 2006; his term started with the swearing-in ceremony held on 15 May 2006. He is the first President of Italy to have been a member of the Italian Communist Party.
. In 1942 he matriculated at the University of Naples Federico II
. He adhered to the local University Fascist Youth ("Gioventù Universitaria Fascista"), where he met his core group of friends, who shared his opposition to Italian fascism
. As he would later state, the group "was in fact a true breeding ground of anti-fascist
intellectual energies, disguised and to a certain extent tolerated".
A theatre enthusiast since high school, during his university years he contributed a theatrical review to the IX Maggio weekly magazine, and had small parts in plays organised by the Gioventù Universitaria Fascista itself. He played in a comedy by Salvatore Di Giacomo
at Teatro Mercadante in Naples. Napolitano dreamed of being an actor and spent his early years performing in several productions at the Teatro Mercadante. He later measured himself against Joyce
and Eliot
.
Napolitano has often been cited as the author of a collection of sonnet
s in Neapolitan language
, published under the pseudonym
Tommaso Pignatelli, entitled "Pe cupià ’o chiarfo" ("To mimic the downpour"). He denied this in 1997 and, again, on the occasion of his presidential election, when his staff described the attribution of authorship to Napolitano as a "journalistic myth".
, a puppet state of Nazi Germany
in the final period of World War II, Napolitano and his circle of friends took part in several actions of the Italian resistance movement
against German and Italian fascist forces. This included occupying the offices of the IX Maggio magazine and using it to publish writings of Karl Marx
masked as articles signed by the various components of the group.
(PCI). In 1947, he graduated in jurisprudence
with a final dissertation on political economy, entitled "Il mancato sviluppo industriale del Mezzogiorno dopo l'unità e la legge speciale per Napoli del 1904". (Italian for "The lack of industrial development in the Mezzogiorno
following the unification of Italy
and the special law of 1904 for Naples").
He was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1953 for the electoral division of Naples
, and was returned at every election until 1996. He was elected to the National Committee of the party during its eighth national congress in 1956, largely thanks to the support offered by Palmiro Togliatti
, who wanted to involve younger politicians in the central direction of the party. He became responsible for the commission for Southern Italy within the National Committee.
Later on in the same year, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and its military suppression by the Soviet Union
occurred. The leadership of the Italian Communist Party labelled the insurgents as counter-revolutionaries, and the official party newspaper L'Unità
referred to them as "thugs" and "despicable agents provocateurs". Napolitano complied with the party-sponsored position on this matter, a choice he would repeatedly declare to have become uncomfortable with, developing what his autobiography describes as a "grievous self-critical torment". He would reason that his compliance was motivated by concerns about the role of the Italian Communist Party as "inseparable from the fates of the socialist forces guided by the USSR" as opposed to "imperialist" forces.
The decision to support the USSR against the Hungarian revolutionaries generated a split in the Italian Communist Party, and even the CGIL
(Italy's largest trade union
, then supportive of the PCI) refused to conform to the party-sponsored position and applauded the revolution, on the basis that the eighth national congress of the Italian Communist Party had indeed stated that the "Italian way to socialism" was to be democratic and specific to the nation. These views were supported in the party by Giorgio Amendola
, whom Napolitano would always look up to as a teacher. Frequently seen together, Giorgio Amendola and Giorgio Napolitano would jokingly be referred to by friends as (respectively) Giorgio 'o chiatto and Giorgio 'o sicco ("Giorgio the pudgy" and "Giorgio the slim" in the Neapolitan dialect
).
and later, between 1966 and 1969, he was coordinator of the secretary's office and of the political office. During the 1970s and the 1980s he was the officer responsible first for culture and later for the economic policy
and the international relations
of the party.
Napolitano's political ideas were somewhat moderate in the context of the PCI: in fact he became the leader of the so-called meliorist
wing (corrente migliorista) of the party, whose members notably included Gerardo Chiaromonte
and Emanuele Macaluso. The term migliorista (from migliore, Italian for "better") was coined with a slightly mocking intent.
In the mid-1970s, Napolitano was invited by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
to give a lecture, but the United States ambassador
to Italy, John A. Volpe
, refused to grant Napolitano a visa
on account of his membership of the PCI. Between 1977 and 1981 Napolitano had some secret meetings with the United States ambassador Richard Gardner
, at a time when the PCI was seeking contact with the US administration, in the context of its definitive break with its past relationship with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
and the beginning of eurocommunism
, the attempt to develop a theory and practice more adequate to the democratic countries of Western Europe. He was an active member of the party until it ended in 1991. In 2006, when Napolitano was elected President of the Italian Republic, Gardner stated to AP Television News
that he considered Napolitano "a real statesman", "a true believer in democracy" and "a friend of the United States [who] will carry out his office with impartiality and fairness". Thanks to this role and in part by the good offices of Giulio Andreotti
, in the 1980s Napolitano was able to travel to the United States and give lectures at Aspen, Colorado
and at Harvard University
. He has since visited and lectured in the United States several times.
, later Democrats of the Left
. Successively, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies (1992–1994), and between 1996 and 1998 he was the first former Communist to become Minister of the Interior
, a role traditionally occupied by Christian Democrats
. In this capacity, he took part together with fellow lawmaker and Cabinet Minister Livia Turco
in drafting the government-sponsored law on immigration control (Legislative Decree No. 40 of 6 March 1998), better known as the "Turco–Napolitano bill". Napolitano also served a second term as a MEP
from 1999 to 2004 as member of the Party of European Socialists
. In October 2005, he was named senator for life
, and was therefore one of the last two to be appointed by President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
, together with Sergio Pininfarina
.
majority coalition The Union
, in place of Massimo D'Alema
, after the chance of a joint vote on D'Alema had been rejected by leaders of the centre-right
coalition the House of Freedoms
. Even though Napolitano appeared at first a candidate that the House of Freedoms could converge on, the proposal was rejected much like that of D'Alema.
The centre-left majority coalition, on 7 May 2006, officially endorsed Giorgio Napolitano as its candidate in the presidential election
that began on 8 May. The Vatican
endorsed him as President through its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano
, just after The Union named him as its candidate, as did Marco Follini
, former secretary of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, a member party of the House of Freedoms.
Napolitano was elected on 10 May, in the fourth round of voting—the first of which required only an absolute majority, unlike the former three which required two-thirds of the votes—with 543 votes (out of a possible 1009). At the age of 80, he became the first former Communist to become President of Italy, as well as the third Neapolitan after Enrico De Nicola
and Giovanni Leone
. He came out of retirement to accept. After his election, expressions of esteem toward his person and his authority as future President of the Italian Republic
were made by both members of The Union and of the House of Freedoms (who had issued a blank vote
), such as Pier Ferdinando Casini
. Nevertheless, some Italian right-wing newspapers, such as il Giornale
, expressed concerns about his communist past. He started his term on 15 May.
final, in which the Italian team
defeated France and won its fourth World Cup, and afterwards he joined the players' celebrations. He is the second President of the Italian Republic to be present at a triumphal World Cup final, after Sandro Pertini.
On 26 September 2006, Napolitano made an official visit to Budapest
, Hungary, where he paid tribute to the fallen in the 1956 revolution, which he initially opposed as member of the Italian Communist Party, by laying a wreath at Imre Nagy's grave.
On 10 February 2007 a diplomatic
crisis arose between Italy and Croatia
, after President Napolitano took an official speech during celebration of the "Memorial Day of Foibe Massacres and Istrian-Dalmatian exodus" in which he stated:
The European Commission did not comment on this event, but did comment on (and partly condemn) the response by Croatian president Stjepan Mesić
, who described Napolitano's statement as racist because Napolitano did not refer to either Slovenians or Croatians as a nation when he spoke about a "Slavic annexationist design" for the Julian March
(at the time, Slovenians and Croatians fought together in the Yugoslav Resistance Movement
). Another matter of debate in Croatia was that the Italian President made awards to relatives of 25 foibe victims, who included the last fascist Italian prefect
in Zadar
, Vincenzo Serrentino, convicted to death in 1947 in Šibenik
. That was seen by Mesić as "historic revisionism" and open support for revanchism
. President Napolitano's remarks on the foibe massacres were praised by both centre-left and centre-right in Italy, and both coalitions condemned Mesić's statements, while the whole of Croatia stood by Mesić, who later acknowledged that Napolitano didn't want to put in discussion the Peace Treaty
of 1947.
On 21 February 2007, Prime Minister
Romano Prodi
submitted his resignation after losing a foreign policy vote in the Parliament
; Napolitano held talks with the political groups in parliament, and on 24th February rejected the resignation, prompting Prodi to ask for a new vote of confidence. Prodi won the vote in the upper house on 28 February and in the lower house on 2 March, allowing his cabinet to remain in office.
lost a vote of confidence in the Senate by a vote of 161 to 156 votes, after the UDEUR Populars
ended its support for the Prodi-led government
. President Napolitano requested the president of the Senate, Franco Marini
, to assess the possibility to form a caretaker government
. On 4 February 2008, Marini acknowledged the impossibility of forming an interim government because the centre-right parties would not join, and on 6 February 2008 Napolitano dissolved the Parliament. Elections were held
on 13 April and 14 April 2008, together with the administrative elections, and won by Berlusconi, removing Prodi from office.
On 7 May 2008, Napolitano offered Silvio Berlusconi
the post of Head of the Italian government, following his victory in the general election. The cabinet was officially inaugurated one day later, with Berlusconi thus becoming the second Prime Minister under President Napolitano.
; the decree was enacted by Berlusconi himself despite being already notified by Napolitano regarding the unconstitutionality of such a measure. This caused a major political debate within Italy regarding the relationship between the President and the government in office.
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Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
politician who has been the 11th President of Italy since 2006. A long-time member of 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...
and later the Democrats of the Left
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
from 1992 to 1994 and as Minister of the Interior
Italian Minister of the Interior
This is a list of Italian Ministers of the Interior since 1861.-Kingdom of Italy:-Italian Republic:...
from 1996 to 1998.
Appointed as a Senator for life
Senator for life
A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , 7 Italian Senators out of 322, 4 out of the 47 Burundian Senators and all members of the British House of Lords have lifetime tenure...
in 2005, he was subsequently elected as President of Italy
Italian presidential election, 2006
The 2006 election of the President of the Italian Republic was held on May 2–10, 2006. As a second-level, indirect election, only Members of Parliament and regional deputies were entitled to vote...
on 10 May 2006; his term started with the swearing-in ceremony held on 15 May 2006. He is the first President of Italy to have been a member of the Italian Communist Party.
Early life
Giorgio Napolitano was born in NaplesNaples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. In 1942 he matriculated at the University of Naples Federico II
University of Naples Federico II
The University of Naples Federico II is a university located in Naples, Italy. It was founded in 1224 and is organized into 13 faculties. It is the world's oldest state university and one of the oldest academic institutions in continuous operation...
. He adhered to the local University Fascist Youth ("Gioventù Universitaria Fascista"), where he met his core group of friends, who shared his opposition to Italian 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...
. As he would later state, the group "was in fact a true breeding ground of anti-fascist
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
intellectual energies, disguised and to a certain extent tolerated".
A theatre enthusiast since high school, during his university years he contributed a theatrical review to the IX Maggio weekly magazine, and had small parts in plays organised by the Gioventù Universitaria Fascista itself. He played in a comedy by Salvatore Di Giacomo
Salvatore Di Giacomo
Salvatore Di Giacomo was a Neapolitan poet, songwriter and playwright.Di Giacomo is credited as being one of those responsible for renewing Neapolitan dialect poetry at the beginning of the 20th century...
at Teatro Mercadante in Naples. Napolitano dreamed of being an actor and spent his early years performing in several productions at the Teatro Mercadante. He later measured himself against Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
and Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
.
Napolitano has often been cited as the author of a collection of sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
s in Neapolitan language
Neapolitan language
Neapolitan is the language of the city and region of Naples , and Campania. On October 14, 2008 a law by the Region of Campania stated that the Neapolitan language had to be protected....
, published under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Tommaso Pignatelli, entitled "Pe cupià ’o chiarfo" ("To mimic the downpour"). He denied this in 1997 and, again, on the occasion of his presidential election, when his staff described the attribution of authorship to Napolitano as a "journalistic myth".
World War II
During the existence of the Italian Social RepublicItalian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
, a puppet state of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in the final period of World War II, Napolitano and his circle of friends took part in several actions of the Italian resistance movement
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
against German and Italian fascist forces. This included occupying the offices of the IX Maggio magazine and using it to publish writings of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
masked as articles signed by the various components of the group.
From post-war years to the Hungarian revolution
Following the end of the war in 1945, Napolitano joined the Italian Communist PartyItalian 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). In 1947, he graduated in jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
with a final dissertation on political economy, entitled "Il mancato sviluppo industriale del Mezzogiorno dopo l'unità e la legge speciale per Napoli del 1904". (Italian for "The lack of industrial development in the Mezzogiorno
Mezzogiorno
The Midday is a wide definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the southern half of the Italian state, encompassing the southern section of the continental Italian Peninsula and the two major islands of Sicily and Sardinia, in addition to a large number of minor islands...
following the unification of Italy
Italian unification
Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...
and the special law of 1904 for Naples").
He was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1953 for the electoral division of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, and was returned at every election until 1996. He was elected to the National Committee of the party during its eighth national congress in 1956, largely thanks to the support offered by Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti was an Italian politician and leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 until his death.-Early life:...
, who wanted to involve younger politicians in the central direction of the party. He became responsible for the commission for Southern Italy within the National Committee.
Later on in the same year, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and its military suppression by 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....
occurred. The leadership of the Italian Communist Party labelled the insurgents as counter-revolutionaries, and the official party newspaper L'Unità
L'Unità
l'Unità is an Italian left-wing newspaper, originally founded as official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party.-History:L'Unità was founded by Antonio Gramsci on 12 February 1924, as the newspaper of workers and peasants, the official newspaper of Italian Communist Party : it was printed in...
referred to them as "thugs" and "despicable agents provocateurs". Napolitano complied with the party-sponsored position on this matter, a choice he would repeatedly declare to have become uncomfortable with, developing what his autobiography describes as a "grievous self-critical torment". He would reason that his compliance was motivated by concerns about the role of the Italian Communist Party as "inseparable from the fates of the socialist forces guided by the USSR" as opposed to "imperialist" forces.
The decision to support the USSR against the Hungarian revolutionaries generated a split in the Italian Communist Party, and even the CGIL
Italian General Confederation of Labour
-External links:**...
(Italy's largest trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
, then supportive of the PCI) refused to conform to the party-sponsored position and applauded the revolution, on the basis that the eighth national congress of the Italian Communist Party had indeed stated that the "Italian way to socialism" was to be democratic and specific to the nation. These views were supported in the party by Giorgio Amendola
Giorgio Amendola
Giorgio Amendola was an Italian writer and politician.Born in Rome in 1907, he was the son of Lithuanian intellectual Eva Kuhn and Giovanni Amendola, a liberal anti-fascist who died in 1926 in Cannes after having been attacked by killers hired by Benito Mussolini...
, whom Napolitano would always look up to as a teacher. Frequently seen together, Giorgio Amendola and Giorgio Napolitano would jokingly be referred to by friends as (respectively) Giorgio 'o chiatto and Giorgio 'o sicco ("Giorgio the pudgy" and "Giorgio the slim" in the Neapolitan dialect
Neapolitan language
Neapolitan is the language of the city and region of Naples , and Campania. On October 14, 2008 a law by the Region of Campania stated that the Neapolitan language had to be protected....
).
From the 1960s to the dissolution of the Italian Communist Party
Napolitano then became the party's federal secretary in Naples and CasertaCaserta
Caserta is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial and industrial comune and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Campanian Subapennine mountain range...
and later, between 1966 and 1969, he was coordinator of the secretary's office and of the political office. During the 1970s and the 1980s he was the officer responsible first for culture and later for the economic policy
Economic policy
Economic policy refers to the actions that governments take in the economic field. It covers the systems for setting interest rates and government budget as well as the labor market, national ownership, and many other areas of government interventions into the economy.Such policies are often...
and the international relations
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
of the party.
Napolitano's political ideas were somewhat moderate in the context of the PCI: in fact he became the leader of the so-called meliorist
Meliorism (politics)
Meliorism was a wing of the Italian Communist Party. Its leader was Giorgio Napolitano, and counted among its number Gerardo Chiaromonte and Emanuele Macaluso...
wing (corrente migliorista) of the party, whose members notably included Gerardo Chiaromonte
Gerardo Chiaromonte
Gerardo Chiaromonte was an Italian Communist politician, journalist and writer.-Biography:He was born in Naples into a poor family from Roccanova, a small village in the province of Potenza...
and Emanuele Macaluso. The term migliorista (from migliore, Italian for "better") was coined with a slightly mocking intent.
In the mid-1970s, Napolitano was invited by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
to give a lecture, but the United States ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to Italy, John A. Volpe
John A. Volpe
John Anthony Volpe was the 61st and 63rd Governor of Massachusetts and a U.S. Secretary of Transportation.-Early life and education:Volpe was born in 1908 in Wakefield, Massachusetts. He was the son of Italian immigrants Vito and Filomena , who had come from Abruzzo to Boston's North End in 1905;...
, refused to grant Napolitano a visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
on account of his membership of the PCI. Between 1977 and 1981 Napolitano had some secret meetings with the United States ambassador Richard Gardner
Richard N. Gardner
Richard Newton Gardner served as the United States Ambassador to Spain and the United States Ambassador to Italy. He is currently a professor of law at Columbia Law School.-Education:...
, at a time when the PCI was seeking contact with the US administration, in the context of its definitive break with its past relationship with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
and the beginning of eurocommunism
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
, the attempt to develop a theory and practice more adequate to the democratic countries of Western Europe. He was an active member of the party until it ended in 1991. In 2006, when Napolitano was elected President of the Italian Republic, Gardner stated to AP Television News
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
that he considered Napolitano "a real statesman", "a true believer in democracy" and "a friend of the United States [who] will carry out his office with impartiality and fairness". Thanks to this role and in part by the good offices of 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...
, in the 1980s Napolitano was able to travel to the United States and give lectures at Aspen, Colorado
Aspen, Colorado
The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
and at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. He has since visited and lectured in the United States several times.
After the dissolution
After the dissolution of the Italian Communist Party, in 1991, Napolitano joined the Democratic Party of the LeftDemocratic Party of the Left
The Democratic Party of the Left was a post-communist, democratic socialist political party in Italy.-History:...
, later Democrats of the Left
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...
. Successively, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies (1992–1994), and between 1996 and 1998 he was the first former Communist to become Minister of the Interior
Italian Minister of the Interior
This is a list of Italian Ministers of the Interior since 1861.-Kingdom of Italy:-Italian Republic:...
, a role traditionally occupied by Christian Democrats
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
. In this capacity, he took part together with fellow lawmaker and Cabinet Minister Livia Turco
Livia Turco
Livia Turco is an Italian politician, member of the Democratic Party .She came from a working class background in Morozzo, Cuneo and studied in Cuneo and Torino. In Torino she began her political career by becoming onvolved with the communist party, becoming a deputy in 1987...
in drafting the government-sponsored law on immigration control (Legislative Decree No. 40 of 6 March 1998), better known as the "Turco–Napolitano bill". Napolitano also served a second term as a MEP
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
from 1999 to 2004 as member of the Party of European Socialists
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists is a European political party led by Sergei Stanishev, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The PES comprises social-democratic national-level political parties primarily from Member state of the European Union, as well as other nations of the European continent. The...
. In October 2005, he was named senator for life
Senator for life
A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , 7 Italian Senators out of 322, 4 out of the 47 Burundian Senators and all members of the British House of Lords have lifetime tenure...
, and was therefore one of the last two to be appointed by President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...
, together with Sergio Pininfarina
Sergio Pininfarina
Sergio Pininfarina is an Italian automobile designer, like his father Battista Farina. After joining his father at Carrozzeria Pininfarina, he quickly became integral to the company, and during his career oversaw many of the designs for which the company is famous...
.
Election as president
In 2006, his name was frequently suggested for the office of President of the Italian Republic. Napolitano was the second person proposed by the centre-leftCentre-left
Centre-left is a political term that describes individuals, political parties or organisations such as think tanks whose ideology lies between the centre and the left on the left-right spectrum...
majority coalition The Union
The Union (political coalition)
The Union was an centre-left coalition of political parties in Italy. It was led by Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy from April 2006 to April 2008, and former President of the European Commission.-Parties:...
, in place of Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema
Massimo D'Alema is an Italian politician. He is also a journalist and a former national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left...
, after the chance of a joint vote on D'Alema had been rejected by leaders of the centre-right
Centre-right
The centre-right or center-right is a political term commonly used to describe or denote individuals, political parties, or organizations whose views stretch from the centre to the right on the left-right spectrum, excluding far right stances. Centre-right can also describe a coalition of centrist...
coalition the House of Freedoms
House of Freedoms
The House of Freedoms , was a major Italian centre-right political and electoral alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi. It was initially composed of several political parties:*Forza Italia *National Alliance...
. Even though Napolitano appeared at first a candidate that the House of Freedoms could converge on, the proposal was rejected much like that of D'Alema.
The centre-left majority coalition, on 7 May 2006, officially endorsed Giorgio Napolitano as its candidate in the presidential election
Italian presidential election, 2006
The 2006 election of the President of the Italian Republic was held on May 2–10, 2006. As a second-level, indirect election, only Members of Parliament and regional deputies were entitled to vote...
that began on 8 May. 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...
endorsed him as President through its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano
L'Osservatore Romano
L'Osservatore Romano is the "semi-official" newspaper of the Holy See. It covers all the Pope's public activities, publishes editorials by important churchmen, and runs official documents after being released...
, just after The Union named him as its candidate, as did Marco Follini
Marco Follini
Marco Follini is an Italian centre-wing politician.Follini was born in Rome. He was National Secretary of the Democrats' Centre Union party until October 15, 2005...
, former secretary of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, a member party of the House of Freedoms.
Napolitano was elected on 10 May, in the fourth round of voting—the first of which required only an absolute majority, unlike the former three which required two-thirds of the votes—with 543 votes (out of a possible 1009). At the age of 80, he became the first former Communist to become President of Italy, as well as the third Neapolitan after Enrico De Nicola
Enrico De Nicola
Enrico Roberto De Nicola was an Italian jurist, journalist, politician, and the first provisional Head of State of the newborn republic of Italy from 1946 to 1948.-Biography:...
and Giovanni Leone
Giovanni Leone
Giovanni Leone was an Italian politician. He was the 38th Prime Minister of Italy from 21 June 1963 to 4 December 1963 and again from 24 June 1968 to 12 December 1968. He also served as the sixth President of the Republic from 1971 to 1978.-Biography:...
. He came out of retirement to accept. After his election, expressions of esteem toward his person and his authority as future President of the Italian Republic
President of the Italian Republic
The President of the Italian Republic is the head of state of Italy and, as such, is intended to represent national unity and guarantee that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The president's term of office lasts for seven years....
were made by both members of The Union and of the House of Freedoms (who had issued a blank vote
None of the above
None of the Above or against all is a ballot option in some jurisdictions or organizations, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of all of the candidates in a voting system...
), such as Pier Ferdinando Casini
Pier Ferdinando Casini
Pier Ferdinando Casini is an Italian politician.-Biography:President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006...
. Nevertheless, some Italian right-wing newspapers, such as il Giornale
Il Giornale
il Giornale is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan, Italy.-History:The newspaper was planned in 1972 by the journalist Indro Montanelli, together with the colleague Enzo Bettiza, after some disagreements with the new pro-left editorial line adopted by the newspaper Corriere della Sera,...
, expressed concerns about his communist past. He started his term on 15 May.
Tenure
On 9 July 2006, Napolitano was present at the FIFA World Cup2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
final, in which the Italian team
Italy national football team
The Italy National Football Team , represents Italy in association football and is controlled by the Italian Football Federation , the governing body for football in Italy. Italy is the second most successful national team in the history of the World Cup having won four titles , just one fewer than...
defeated France and won its fourth World Cup, and afterwards he joined the players' celebrations. He is the second President of the Italian Republic to be present at a triumphal World Cup final, after Sandro Pertini.
On 26 September 2006, Napolitano made an official visit to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary, where he paid tribute to the fallen in the 1956 revolution, which he initially opposed as member of the Italian Communist Party, by laying a wreath at Imre Nagy's grave.
On 10 February 2007 a diplomatic
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
crisis arose between Italy and Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, after President Napolitano took an official speech during celebration of the "Memorial Day of Foibe Massacres and Istrian-Dalmatian exodus" in which he stated:
The European Commission did not comment on this event, but did comment on (and partly condemn) the response by Croatian president Stjepan Mesić
Stjepan Mesić
Stjepan "Stipe" Mesić is a Croatian politician and former President of Croatia. Before his ten-year presidential term between 2000 and 2010 he held the posts of Speaker of the Croatian Parliament , Prime Minister of Croatia , the last President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia , Secretary General...
, who described Napolitano's statement as racist because Napolitano did not refer to either Slovenians or Croatians as a nation when he spoke about a "Slavic annexationist design" for the Julian March
Julian March
The Julian March is a former political region of southeastern Europe on what are now the borders between Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy...
(at the time, Slovenians and Croatians fought together in the Yugoslav Resistance Movement
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
). Another matter of debate in Croatia was that the Italian President made awards to relatives of 25 foibe victims, who included the last fascist Italian prefect
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
in Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
, Vincenzo Serrentino, convicted to death in 1947 in Šibenik
Šibenik
Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...
. That was seen by Mesić as "historic revisionism" and open support for revanchism
Revanchism
Revanchism is a term used since the 1870s to describe a political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement. Revanchism draws its strength from patriotic and retributionist thought and is often motivated by economic or...
. President Napolitano's remarks on the foibe massacres were praised by both centre-left and centre-right in Italy, and both coalitions condemned Mesić's statements, while the whole of Croatia stood by Mesić, who later acknowledged that Napolitano didn't want to put in discussion the Peace Treaty
Treaty of peace with Italy (1947)
The Treaty of Peace with Italy was a treaty signed in Paris on February 10, 1947, between Italy and the victorious powers of World War II, formally ending the hostilities...
of 1947.
On 21 February 2007, Prime Minister
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
submitted his resignation after losing a foreign policy vote in the Parliament
Parliament of Italy
The Parliament of Italy is the national parliament of Italy. It is a bicameral legislature with 945 elected members . The Chamber of Deputies, with 630 members is the lower house. The Senate of the Republic is the upper house and has 315 members .Since 2005, a party list electoral law is being...
; Napolitano held talks with the political groups in parliament, and on 24th February rejected the resignation, prompting Prodi to ask for a new vote of confidence. Prodi won the vote in the upper house on 28 February and in the lower house on 2 March, allowing his cabinet to remain in office.
2008 political crisis
On 24 January 2008, Romano ProdiRomano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
lost a vote of confidence in the Senate by a vote of 161 to 156 votes, after the UDEUR Populars
UDEUR Populars for the South
UDEUR Populars for the South is a small centrist and Christian-democratic political party in Italy. Led by Clemente Mastella, the party has been at times very strong in Southern Italy, but almost irrelevant in Northern Italy...
ended its support for the Prodi-led government
Prodi II Cabinet
The Prodi II Cabinet was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008, a total of 722 days, or 1 year, 11 months and 21 days...
. President Napolitano requested the president of the Senate, Franco Marini
Franco Marini
Franco Marini is an Italian politician and a prominent member of the centre-left Democratic Party. From 2006 to 2008 he was President of the Italian Senate.-Biography:...
, to assess the possibility to form a caretaker government
Caretaker government
Caretaker government is a type of government that rules temporarily. A caretaker government is often set up following a war until stable democratic rule can be restored, or installed, in which case it is often referred to as a provisional government...
. On 4 February 2008, Marini acknowledged the impossibility of forming an interim government because the centre-right parties would not join, and on 6 February 2008 Napolitano dissolved the Parliament. Elections were held
Italian general election, 2008
A snap general election was held in Italy on 13 April and 14 April 2008. The election came after President Giorgio Napolitano dissolved parliament on 6 February 2008 following the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a January 2008 Senate vote, and the unsuccessful tentative...
on 13 April and 14 April 2008, together with the administrative elections, and won by Berlusconi, removing Prodi from office.
On 7 May 2008, Napolitano offered Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
the post of Head of the Italian government, following his victory in the general election. The cabinet was officially inaugurated one day later, with Berlusconi thus becoming the second Prime Minister under President Napolitano.
Eluana Englaro incident
On 6 February 2009, President Napolitano refused to sign an emergency decree made by the Berlusconi government in order to suspend a final court sentence allowing suspension of nutrition to 38-year old coma patient Eluana EnglaroEluana Englaro
Eluana Englaro was an Italian woman from Lecco, who entered a persistent vegetative state on January 18, 1992, following a car accident, and subsequently became the focus of a court battle between supporters and opponents of euthanasia...
; the decree was enacted by Berlusconi himself despite being already notified by Napolitano regarding the unconstitutionality of such a measure. This caused a major political debate within Italy regarding the relationship between the President and the government in office.
Honours and awards
- Knight Grand Cross Order of Merit of the Italian RepublicOrder of Merit of the Italian RepublicThe Order of Merit of the Italian Republic was founded as the senior order of knighthood by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi in 1951...
- Knight with Collar Order of Pius IXOrder of Pius IXThe Order of Pius IX , also referred as the Pian Order , is a Papal order of knighthood founded on 17 June 1847 by Pope Pius IX.-Classes:The Order comprises five classes:...
- Dan David PrizeDan David PrizeThe Dan David Prize annually awards 3 prizes of $1 million each awarded by the Dan David Foundation and Tel Aviv University to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution in the fields of science, technology, culture or social welfare. There are three prize categories - past, present and...
: To Mr. Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic, for his dedication to the cause of Parliamentary democracy, thereby contributing to a strengthening of democratic values and institutions in Italy and Europe; and for his courage and intellectual integrity which have been crucial in healing the wounds of the Cold War in Europe, as well as the scars left in Italy in the wake of fascism.
External links
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