Salvatore Formica (born 1 March 1927), best known as Rino Formica, is a former Italian politician.

Biography

Formica was born in

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

. He became a member of national importance of 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, ...

(Italian: ''Partito Socialista Italiano'', or simply PSI) during the leadership of

Bettino Craxi Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( , , ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th prime minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first PSI membe ...

. He was several times Minister of the Italian Republic starting from 1980. He was Minister of Budget in the

Spadolini II Cabinet The Spadolini II Cabinet, led by Giovanni Spadolini, was the 40th cabinet of the Italian Republic. The government remained in office from 23 August 1982 to 1 December 1982. This government was also known as the "Photocopy government", as identic ...

, whose fall was caused by a quarrel between Formica and the other economy minister Beniamino Andreatta. Formica was strongly critical of the PSI's transformation from a popular, social-based party into one involved in numerous corruption and official malfeasance scandals under Craxi. He declared "the convent is poor, but the monks are rich" (in reference to PSI's financial problems, where its members were instead increasingly well endowed), and defined PSI's national assembly as "a court of dwarves and

ballerina A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on yea ...

s. Formica was one of the numerous PSI members involved in the

Mani Pulite ''Mani pulite'' (; Italian language, Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the so-called "History of the Italian Republic#First ...

scandal of the early 1990s, although he was acquitted in the two trials raised against him. After Craxi's resignation as PSI national secretary in 1993, he supported

Claudio Martelli Claudio Martelli (born 24 September 1943) is an Italian politician. He was the right-hand man of Bettino Craxi, the socialist Prime Minister from 1983–1987. Biography Martelli was born at Gessate, in the province of Milan. He graduated in Phi ...

as his successor. In 1994 he was not re-elected to the Italian Parliament for the first time since the 1970s. In 2003 he founded a post-Socialist party called Socialismo è Libertà and later adhered to the

new Italian Socialist Party The New Italian Socialist Party or New PSI ( it, Nuovo Partito Socialista Italiano or ''Nuovo PSI'', NPSI), more recently styled as Liberal Socialists – NPSI, is a political party in Italy which professes a social-democratic ideology and claims t ...

, a small-sized formation of socialists who did not join the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Formica, Rino 1927 births Living people People from Bari Italian Socialist Party politicians Finance ministers of Italy Government ministers of Italy Transport ministers of Italy