Events in the year 1997 in Italy.

Incumbents

* President – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro * Prime Minister – Romano Prodi

Events

January

*3 January - The new Public Funding for Political Parties Act comes into force. *16 January - A large farmers' protest rally in

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

against the Milk quota paralyzes the whole of Northern Italy.

February

*5 February - Massimo D'Alema, leader of the majority Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), is appointed president of the Third Parliamentary Commission for the revision of the Constitution.

April

*9 April - The

Communist Refoundation Party The Communist Refoundation Party ( it, Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, PRC) is a communist political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who replac ...

(PRC), which, externally, supports the government, votes against the resolution that authorizes Operation Alba: a multinational peacekeeping force led by Italy and intended to help the Albanian government restore law and order in their troubled country after the

1997 rebellion in Albania The Albanian Civil War in 1997 was sparked by pyramid scheme failures in Albania soon after its transition to a market economy. The government was toppled and more than 2,000 people were killed. Various other sources also describe the violenc ...

. The measure is approved thanks to the favorable vote of the center-right opposition. *27 April - Local elections help the center-left government coalition make some gains in multiple cities.

May

*9 May - A separatist commando connected with the regionalist

Lega Nord Lega Nord (; acronym: LN), whose complete name is (), is a right-wing, federalist, populist and conservative political party in Italy. In the run-up of the 2018 general election, the party was rebranded as (), without changing its official n ...

party occupies with a tank the

Campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

San Marco Square Piazza San Marco (; vec, Piasa San Marco), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as ''la Piazza'' ("the Square"). All other urban spaces in the city (exc ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. *14 May - The Parliament approves the Administrative Decentralization Act (Law 15 May 1997, no. 127) which implements the regional federalism.

June

*4 June - The Parliament approves a new Labor Law (Law 24 June 1997, no. 196) in order to reduce the high unemployment. *6 June - The

Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily a ...

boss,

Pietro Aglieri Pietro Aglieri (; born 9 June 1959) is a Sicilian mafioso from the Guadagna neighbourhood of Palermo. He is known as ("The Little Gentleman") for his relatively sophisticated education and refined manners. He had a classical education and studi ...

, nicknamed ''U Signurinu'' ("The Little Gentleman") for his relatively sophisticated education and '' The Guardian''’s pick as Italy’s “Emerging Man of the Year, 1995,” is arrested in the town of

Bagheria Bagheria (; scn, Baarìa ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily, Italy, located approximately 10km to the east of the city centre. Etymology According to some sources, the name ''Bagheria'' (by way of old Sicil ...

, Sicily. Aglieri is tried, in absentia, for the 1992 bombing deaths of Mafia investigators Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Aglieri is sentenced to life imprisonment. *15 June - A seven-part referendum is held. Voters are asked to approve or deny the repeal of laws concerning privatisation,

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

s, hunting, the judiciary, journalists, and dissolution of the Ministry of Agrarian Politics. Although all of the proposed changes are approved by participating voters, turnout is a mere 30%, and falls below the required voter turnout of 50%. The results are invalid and the referendum a failure.

September

*26 September **Twenty-two Sicilian Mafiosi are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the magistrate Giovanni Falcone in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. ** An earthquake occurs in Umbria and Marche regions, Central Italy. The foreshock occurs at 2:33 am CEST (0:33 UTC), rated 5.7 on the Richter scale, and the second, primary shock, registers 6.1 on the Richter scale, occurs at 11:40 am CEST (9:40 UTC), and claims eleven lives. Extensive damage to important cultural centers and heritage sites is observed, some of which are completely lost to the devastating event. Basilica of St. Francis,

Assisi Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born aroun ...

- two specialists and two friars amongst the group tasked with inspecting the damage beneath the Basilica are killed when an

aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousand ...

rocks the building, causing the vault to collapse. Along with these four unfortunate souls, the

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

es contained within the collapsed vault, chronicling the life of St. Francis di Assisi by Giotto, are almost entirely obliterated. Frescoes in the Upper Church of the Basilica suffer minor damage.

November

*9 November - The Mani Pulite scandal magistrate Antonio Di Pietro is elected member of the

Italian Senate The Senate of the Republic ( it, Senato della Repubblica), or simply the Senate ( it, Senato), is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Chamber of Deputies). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral sy ...

in a by-election. Supported by the center-left government coalition, he defeats the right-wing journalist and former minister

Giuliano Ferrara Giuliano Ferrara (born 7 January 1952) is an Italian politician, journalist, founding editor of ''Il Foglio'', and TV presenter. Life and career Ferrara came from a family of Communism, Communists: his father Maurizio was a communist senator. Ferr ...

in the Mugello constituency, a left wing stronghold.

Deaths

*May 5 ** Walter Gotell, German actor (b.

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

) ** Egidio Armelloni, Italian gymnast (b.

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Januar ...

) *June 13 – Vittorio Mussolini, 80, Benito Mussolini's son *July 15 – Gianni Versace, 50, fashion designer *December 25 – Giorgio Strehler, 76, opera and theatre director

References

Years of the 20th century in Italy 1990s in Italy Italy Italy {{Europe-year-stub