Antonio Rastrelli (15 October 1927 – 15 August 2019) was an Italian politician and lawyer. He served as the President of Campania from 1995 until 1999.

Early life and family

Antonio Rastrelli was born in

Portici Portici (; ) is a town and municipality (''comune'') of the Metropolitan City of Naples in the region of Campania in Italy. It has 51,351 inhabitants. Geography Portici lies at the foot of Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, about southeast of ...

(

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

) in 1927. His father, Carlo Rastrelli, was among the founders of Neapolitan

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

along with Aurelio Padovani, General Consul of the Fascist Militia M.V.S.N., and Prefectural Commissioner of

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of the Province of L'Aquila and the Abruzzo region in Italy. , it has a population of 69,902. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valley of the A ...

in the regime of the

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic (, ; RSI; , ), known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy (; SNRI), but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò (, ), was a List of World War II puppet states#Germany, German puppe ...

. After the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

, Carlo Rastrelli served as

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

deputy mayor under

Monarchist National Party The Monarchist National Party (, PNM) was a list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy founded in 1946. It was a right-wing competitor to Christian Democracy (Italy), Christian Democracy and was especially strong in Southern Ital ...

Achille Lauro Achille Lauro (; 16 June 1887 – 15 November 1982) was an Italian businessman and politician. He is widely considered one of the main precursors of modern populism in Italian politics. He was nicknamed by his supporters ''Il Comandante'' ("Th ...

. Antonio's brother Massimo Rastrelli became a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest and was an

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

in the social struggle against

usury Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in e ...

. The Rastrellis are direct descendants of the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (; 1700 – 29 April 1771) was an Italian architect who worked mainly in Russia. He developed an easily recognizable style of Late Baroque, both sumptuous and majestic. His major works, including the Winter Palac ...

who designed the

Czar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Winter Palace The Winter Palace is a palace in Saint Petersburg that served as the official residence of the House of Romanov, previous emperors, from 1732 to 1917. The palace and its precincts now house the Hermitage Museum. The floor area is 233,345 square ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Politics

Antonio Rastrelli joined the

Italian Social Movement The Italian Social Movement (, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national conservatism. In 1972, the Itali ...

in 1948. He was elected Senator for the first time in 1979 and held office until 1994. In the

1994 Italian general election The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, which marked a "general turn to the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

," Rastrelli was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

and was appointed Undersecretary to the Ministry of Treasury in the first Berlusconi cabinet. In 1995, he was nominated president of Campania by the ''Polo delle Libertà'' party (

Pole of Freedoms The Pole of Freedoms () was a centre-right political and electoral alliance in Italy, launched at the 1994 general election by Silvio Berlusconi. Its counterpart in central and southern Italy was the Pole of Good Government, both forming the f ...

). During his tenure, in 1998, Campania was hit by a

mudslide A mudflow, also known as mudslide or mud flow, is a form of mass wasting involving fast-moving flow of debris and dirt that has become liquified by the addition of water. Such flows can move at speeds ranging from 3 meters/minute to 5 meters/ ...

that struck the hilly area east of Naples and left in its wake 37 people dead and 71 more missing. Environmentalists blamed decades of "bad

land management Land management is the process of managing the land use, use and development of land resources. Those resources are used for a variety of purposes for example agriculture, forestry, water resource management, Human settlement, human settlements an ...

" with people allowed to grub up trees and burn off scrub-land to increase

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

or clear areas for unregulated construction. Campania president Rastrelli, who was serving also as special commissioner for hydro-geological issues, defended his record, saying "having the power to intervene is one thing. But it's no good without funding." In 1999, he resigned after the ''Polo'' withdrew its support and he was replaced by Andrea Losco, the centre-left coalition's nominee. In the 2000 regional elections, he was again a candidate for president of Campania but he was defeated by

Antonio Bassolino Antonio Bassolino, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (born 20 March 1947) is an Italian politician. He was the president of Campania from 2000 to 2010 and the mayor of Naples from 1993 to 2000. Biography Bassolino was born in Afragola, Campania. A ...

. In 2007, he joined the far-right party ''La Destra'' ("

The Right Right-wing politics is the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position b ...

"), led by

Francesco Storace Francesco Storace (born 25 January 1959) is an Italian politician and journalist. Biography Born in Cassino, in the Lazio region, Storace began his career at the right-wing newspaper '' Il Secolo d'Italia'' until entering the ranks of the Itali ...

Administrative justice

In 2001, on the recommendation of the

President of the Republic The President of the Republic is a title used for heads of state and/or heads of government in countries having republican form of government. Designation In most cases the president of a republic is elected, either: * by direct universal s ...

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (; 9 December 1920 – 16 September 2016) was an Italian politician, statesman and banker who was the President of Italy from 1999 to 2006 and the Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994. A World War II veteran, C ...

, Rastrelli was unanimously elected by the Italian Parliament to serve as lay member of the '' Consiglio di presidenza della giustizia amministrativa'' (the Presidency Council of Administrative Justice), a position he held until 2006.

Death

He died on 15 August 2019. His

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

at the Sacro Cuore church in

attracted a large crowd, with many attendees giving the

fascist salute The Roman salute, also known as the Fascist salute, is a Salute, gesture in which the right arm is fully extended, facing forward, with palm down and fingers touching. In some versions, the arm is raised upward at an angle; in others, it is hel ...

Honors

The Spanish government, in 1998, inducted Rastrelli in the ''Orden del Mérito Civil'' (

Order of Civil Merit The Royal Order of Civil Merit (; Abbreviation, Abbr.: OMC) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent Order of merit, orders of merit bestowed by the Kingdom of Spain, alongside the Order of Charles III (established in 1771) and the Order ...

) in recognition of "extraordinary service for the benefit of Spain."

References

External links

Family website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rastrelli, Antonio 1927 births 2019 deaths Presidents of Campania 20th-century Italian lawyers Italian Social Movement politicians National Alliance (Italy) politicians The Right (Italy) politicians Italian fascists