Bruno Villabruna (12 August 1884 – 16 October 1971) was an Italian lawyer and liberal politician. Born in

Santa Giustina Santa Giustina is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Belluno in the Italian region of Veneto, located about northwest of Venice and about southwest of Belluno. Santa Giustina borders the following municipalities: Cesiomaggiore, ...

, near

Belluno Belluno (; lld, Belum; vec, Belùn) is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about north of Venice, Belluno is the capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites region ...

in the

Veneto Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona. Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...

, he was first elected to parliament in 1921. After the rise to power of the fascists, he joined, unlike many other liberals, the democratic opposition around old leader

Giovanni Giolitti Giovanni Giolitti (; 27 October 1842 – 17 July 1928) was an Italian statesman. He was the Prime Minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. After Benito Mussolini, he is the second-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history. A pr ...

and in 1924 refused to candidate himself in the fascist-led national union list. When all political parties were dissolved in early 1925, he retired from political life and kept on being a lawyer. In July 1943, with the Mussolini regime having been overthrown, he was appointed podestà of Turin, but had to resign after 45 days because of the German occupation. In the liberated Northern Italy in 1945, he became a member of the

Consulta Nazionale The National Council (''Consulta Nazionale'') was an unelected provisional legislative assembly set up in the Kingdom of Italy after the end of World War II. It fulfilled the roles of parliament until regular elections could be held. It first sat ...

and in 1946 was elected to the

Assemblea Costituente The Italian Constituent Assembly (Italian: ''Assemblea Costituente della Repubblica Italiana'') was a parliamentary chamber which existed in Italy from 25 June 1946 until 31 January 1948. It was tasked with writing a constitution for the Italian ...

. He failed being elected to the first parliament of the Italian Republic in 1948, but a few months later he was appointed Secretary General of the Italian Liberal Party (PLI), that went through a deep crisis caused by his extreme right-wing predecessor

Roberto Lucifero Roberto Lucifero d'Aprigliano (16 December 1903 - 11 January 1993) was a lawyer who became an antifascist partisan. As the war ended he turned to politics and journalism. In 1947/48 he briefly (and divisively) served as national secretary of th ...

. Villabruna tried to convince the left-wing dissident group Movimento Liberale Indipendente (MLI) led by Count

Nicolò Carandini Count Nicolò Carandini (6 December 1896 – 18 March 1972) was a leader of Italian post−World War II liberalism and a champion of European Federalism. He was the first Italian ambassador to Britain after World War II, and the first presi ...

to return into the ranks of PLI, which they had left in early 1948, but only in late 1951 did this operation come to a successful conclusion. In 1954 Villabruna became Minister of Industry and Trade in the Scelba government, and let the leadership of the Liberal Party to

Giovanni Malagodi Giovanni Francesco Malagodi (12 October 1904 – 17 April 1991) was an Italian liberal politician, secretary of the Italian Liberal Party (''Partito Liberale Italiano''; PLI), and president of the Italian Senate. He was the third and sixth Pre ...

, with whom he came into serious quarrels few time later. In 1955 he left the PLI. Together with Carandini and

Leone Cattani Leone Cattani (5 January 1906 – 29 October 1980) was an Italian lawyer, politician and Anti-fascism, anti-Fascist activist. Between December 1944 and December 1945 he served as secretary general of the Italian Liberal Party. Later, in 1955, h ...

he was now among the founders of the Radical Party. From 1958 to 1960 he was Secretary General of this party, retiring definitely to private life after its dissolution in 1962. Villabruna died in 1971 in

Torre Pellice Torre Pellice (Vivaro-Alpine: ''La Torre de Pèlis'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin. It is crossed by the Pellice river. Torre Pellice is the cent ...

Pinerolo Pinerolo (; pms, Pinareul ; french: Pignerol; oc, Pineròl) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, northwestern Italy, southwest of Turin on the river Chisone. The Lemina torrent has its source at the boundary be ...

Sources

External links

https://web.archive.org/web/20060614043824/http://www.radicalparty.org/history/chron/1955_in.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20150924084445/http://www.radioradicale.it/exagora/1-lorganizzazione-del-partito-radicale-1955-1962
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villabruna, Bruno 1884 births 1971 deaths People from the Province of Belluno Italian Liberal Party politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Radical Party (Italy) politicians Government ministers of Italy Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy) Members of the Constituent Assembly of Italy Mayors of Turin Politicians of Veneto