Giovanni Francesco Malagodi (12 October 1904 – 17 April 1991) was an Italian liberal politician, secretary of the

Italian Liberal Party The Italian Liberal Party ( it, Partito Liberale Italiano, PLI) was a liberal and conservative political party in Italy. The PLI, which is the heir of the liberal currents of both the Historical Right and the Historical Left, was a minor party ...

(''Partito Liberale Italiano''; PLI), and president 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 ...

. He was the third and sixth President of the

Liberal International Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism around ...

, in the periods 1958–1966 and 1982–1989 respectively.

Biography

Born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, he was the son of journalist and politician Olindo Malagodi. Starting from the 1930s, he held directive positions in the

Banca Commerciale Italiana Banca Commerciale Italiana (COMIT), founded in 1894, was once one of the largest banks in Italy. In 1999 it merged with a banking group consisting of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (aka Cariplo; est. 1823) and Banco Ambroveneto, wh ...

, and was thus named as Italian representative of the

Organisation for European Economic Co-operation The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

(OEEC) soon after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1953 Malagodi entered the Italian Liberal Party, and was appointed as the party's national secretary the following year. During his tenure, the PLI abandoned its historic identification with the ''

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

'' and instead established strong ties with

Confindustria The General Confederation of Italian Industry ( it, Confederazione generale dell'industria italiana), commonly known as Confindustria, is the Italy, Italian employers' federation and national chamber of commerce, founded in 1910. It groups togeth ...

, the country's leading association of industrialists. He also opposed attempts by the

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social ...

to form a centre-left alliance with the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892, ...

in government; this, in 1955, caused the secession of the PLI's left wing, which went on to form the Radical Party. Under Malagodi, in 1963 the PLI scored a record 7% in that year's

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. With the formation of centre-left governments in the 1960s, the PLI was marginalized in the Italian political world, and suffered a decline that was not halted by the party's participation in the second Giulio Andreotti cabinet of 1972–1973. Malagodi was chosen as Minister of the Treasury in that government, launching a series of measures that favoured younger and more politically-aligned bureaucrats, such as the so-called ''pensioni d'oro'' ("Golden pensions"). In 1972 Malagodi resigned as secretary of the PLI, assuming the party's presidency that same year. He abandoned this latter position in 1976 after coming into conflict with

Valerio Zanone Valerio Zanone (22 January 1936 – 7 January 2016) was an Italian politician, who was formerly secretary and president of the Italian Liberal Party (''Partito Liberale Italiano''; PLI). He was also a senator for the Democratic Party (Italy), Demo ...

, the new leader of the PLI, who was more oriented towards a collaboration with centre-left parties. Malagodi was the president of the

from 22 April to 1 July 1987, succeeding

Amintore Fanfani Amintore Fanfani (; 6 February 1908 – 20 November 1999) was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War an ...

. Between 1954 and 1965, Malagodi participated in several Bilderberg conferences. He died in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in April 1991.

External links

Profile at Italian Senate

Presidents of the Italian Senate Presidents of the Liberal International 1904 births 1991 deaths Italian Liberal Party politicians 20th-century Italian politicians British emigrants to Italy {{Italy-politician-stub