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Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (; 9 September 1918 – 29 January 2012) was the president of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of
Christian Democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
(DC), he became an
independent politician An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...
after the DC's dissolution in 1992, and was close to the centre-left Democratic Party when it was founded in 2007.


Biography

Scalfaro was born in
Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It i ...
, Province of Novara, on 9 September 1918,Page at Senate website
.
son of Guglielmo, Barone Scalfaro (born
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...
, 21 December 1888) and wife Rosalia Ussino. He was raised in a religious atmosphere. He became a member of the association Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action) at the age of 12 and kept its badge on his lapel until his death. Scalfaro studied law at
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...
's Università Cattolica and graduated on 30 July 1941. On 21 October 1942, he entered the magistrature. In 1945, after the end of
World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, he became a public prosecuting attorney, and to date he is the last Italian attorney to have obtained a death sentence: in July of that year, along with two others, he was public prosecutor in the trial against former Novara
prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...
Enrico Vezzalini and servicemen Arturo Missiato, Domenico Ricci, Salvatore Santoro, Giovanni Zeno and Raffaele Infante, accused of "collaborating with the German invaders". After a three-day-long debate, all six were condemned to death. The sentence was carried out on 23 September 1945. Later on, he obtained one more death sentence, but the accused was pardoned before the execution could take place. In 1946 he was elected to the
Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...
and later in 1948 he became a deputy representing the district of
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
. He was re-elected ten times in a row until 1992. Within the Democrazia Cristiana party he was associated with its right wing. On 25 May 1992, he was elected as President of the Italian Republic, after a two-week stalemate of unsuccessful attempts to reach agreement. The killing of anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone prompted his election. His mandate ended in May 1999, and he automatically became a lifetime member of the Senate. On 7 April 1994, Scalfaro co-officiated at the Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah at the Sala Nervi in Vatican City, along with
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
, and Chief Rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff. In recent times, Scalfaro was the chairman of the committee that advocated the abrogation, in the
referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a Representative democr ...
of 25 and 26 June 2006, on the constitutional reform that had been passed in parliament the previous year by the former center-right majority. Along with all the center-left (and a few center-right personalities, too), Scalfaro considered it to be dangerous for national unity and for other reasons. The opponents of the reform won a landslide victory in the referendum. Scalfaro was the oldest surviving former Italian president and the second oldest member of the Senate, after Rita Levi-Montalcini. He consequently took the temporary presidency of the newly elected assembly which followed the 2006 general election, as Levi Montalcini refused the role because of her age. This made him one of the three politicians in Italian history to have presided over the three highest-ranked offices in the Italian Republic: President of the Republic, President of the Senate, and President of the Chamber of Deputies; the others are
Sandro Pertini Alessandro "Sandro" Pertini (; 25 September 1896 – 24 February 1990) was an Italian socialist politician who served as the president of Italy from 1978 to 1985. Early life Born in Stella (Province of Savona) as the son of a wealthy landown ...
and Enrico De Nicola. A staunch
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, and in the past a rather conservative and
anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
politician, Scalfaro nevertheless distrusted many members of the DC who changed support to
Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...
, and was consistently on bad terms with
Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...
. He openly supported the centre-left coalition, which included Democratic Party of the Left, which won the 1996 and 2006 elections. Despite his age, he also actively campaigned, for the "No" side, in the June 2006 referendum on a constitutional reform. This reform had been proposed by Berlusconi's House of Freedom coalition during its control of the government. During the Second World War, in 1944, Scalfaro lost his 20-year-old wife Maria Inzitari, by whom he had a daughter, Marianna. He never married again. After the 2008 parliamentary election, he was again asked to preside as ''pro tempore'' Speaker of the Senate after Rita Levi-Montalcini again refused the post, but this time he also declined to serve.


Honours and awards

As President of the Italian Republic, Scalfaro was Head of several Italian Orders from 28 May 1992 to 15 May 1999: the
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( it, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) is the senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-rankin ...
, the Military Order of Italy, the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, the Order of Merit for Labour and the Order of Vittorio Veneto. Personally, he was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit for School, Culture and Art on 31 July 1973. He also received several foreign honours: *Knight of Magistral Grace of the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
(1950) *Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta * : Knight of the
Order of the Elephant The Order of the Elephant ( da, Elefantordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry and is Denmark's highest-ranked honour. It has origins in the 15th century, but has officially existed since 1693, and since the establishment of constitutional ...
(19 October 1993) * : ''Honorary'' Companion of Honour with Collar of the
National Order of Merit An order of merit is conferred by a state, government or royal family on an individual in recognition of military or civil merit. Order of merit may also refer to: * FIFA Order of Merit, for significant contribution to association football * PDC ...
(16 November 1995) * : Knight of the Collar of the
Order of Isabella the Catholic The Order of Isabella the Catholic ( es, Orden de Isabel la Católica) is a Spanish civil order and honor granted to persons and institutions in recognition of extraordinary services to the homeland or the promotion of international relations a ...
(27 June 1996) * : Grand Cross (or 1st Class) of the Order of the White Double Cross (1997) * : Knight Grand Cross of the
Grand Order of King Tomislav The Grand Order of King Tomislav ( hr, Velered kralja Tomislava), or officially the Grand Order of King Tomislav with Sash and Great Morning Star (''Velered kralja Tomislava s lentom i Velikom Danicom''), is the highest state order of Croatia. It ...
("For outstanding contribution to the promotion of friendship and development co-operation between the Republic of Croatia and the Italian Republic." - 17 December 1997) * : Collar of the
Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana ( et, Maarjamaa Risti teenetemärk, sometimes translated as the Order of the Cross of St. Mary's Land) was instituted by the President of Estonia, Lennart Meri, on 16 May 1995 to honour the independence of t ...
* : Knight of the Order of the Three Stars, First Class * : Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great (19 May 1997) * : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle * : Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (1995)


Electoral history


References


External links


Encyclopædia Britannica, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro - full access article
*

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scalfaro, Oscar Luigi 1918 births 2012 deaths People from Novara People of Campanian descent People of Calabrian descent Italian Roman Catholics Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians Presidents of Italy Italian Ministers of the Interior Transport ministers of Italy Members of the Constituent Assembly of Italy Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy) Deputies of Legislature I of Italy Deputies of Legislature II of Italy Deputies of Legislature III of Italy Deputies of Legislature IV of Italy Deputies of Legislature V of Italy Deputies of Legislature VI of Italy Deputies of Legislature VII of Italy Deputies of Legislature VIII of Italy Deputies of Legislature IX of Italy Deputies of Legislature X of Italy Deputies of Legislature XI of Italy Italian life senators Politicians of Piedmont Italian anti-fascists Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore alumni Collars of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Honorary Companions of Honour with Collar of the National Order of Merit (Malta) Grand Crosses of the Order of Vytautas the Great Recipients of the Collar of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana Knights of Magistral Grace of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta Recipients of the Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 1st class