Oscar Luigi Scalfaro

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɔskar luˈiːdʒi ˈskalfaro]; 9 September 1918 – 29 January 2012) was President of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), he became an independent politician after the DC's dissolution in 1992, and was close to the centre-left Democratic Party when it was founded in 2007. Before his election to the Presidency, he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Turin for 44 years from 1948 to 1992.

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Official portrait, 1992
President of Italy
In office 28 May 1992 – 15 May 1999
Prime Minister	Giulio Andreotti Giuliano Amato Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Silvio Berlusconi Lamberto Dini Romano Prodi Massimo D'Alema
Preceded by	Francesco Cossiga
Succeeded by	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
President of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 24 April 1992 – 25 May 1992
Preceded by	Nilde Iotti
Succeeded by	Giorgio Napolitano
Ministerial offices Minister of the Interior In office 4 August 1983 – 28 July 1987 Prime Minister Bettino Craxi Amintore Fanfani Preceded by Virginio Rognoni Succeeded by Amintore Fanfani Minister of Public Education In office 26 July 1972 – 7 July 1973 Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti Preceded by Riccardo Misasi Succeeded by Franco Maria Malfatti Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation In office 12 February 1972 – 26 July 1972 Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti Preceded by Italo Viglianesi Succeeded by Aldo Bozzi In office 23 February 1966 – 12 December 1968 Prime Minister Aldo Moro Giovanni Leone Preceded by Angelo Raffaele Jervolino Succeeded by Luigi Mariotti Secretary of the Council of Ministers In office 10 February 1954 – 6 July 1955 Prime Minister Mario Scelba Preceded by Mariano Rumor Succeeded by Carlo Russa
Parliamentary offices Member of the Senate of the Republic Ex officio Life tenure 16 May 1999 – 29 January 2012 Member of the Chamber of Deputies In office 8 May 1948 – 25 May 1992 Constituency Turin–Novara–Vercelli Member of the Constituent Assembly In office 25 June 1946 – 31 January 1948 Constituency Turin
Personal details
Born	(1918-09-09)9 September 1918 Novara, Kingdom of Italy
Died	29 January 2012(2012-01-29) (aged 93) Rome, Italy
Political party	DC (1946–1992) Independent (from 1992)
Spouse	Maria Inzitari ​ ​ (m. 1943; died 1944)​
Children	1
Signature

Biography

Scalfaro was born in Novara, Province of Novara, on 9 September 1918, son of Guglielmo, Barone Scalfaro (born Naples, 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'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, 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 a public prosecutor in the trial against former Novara prefect 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 death sentences were 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 and later in 1948, he became a deputy representing the district of Turin. 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.

Church and state: President Scalfaro with Pope John Paul II in November 1992

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, and Chief Rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff.

In recent times, Scalfaro was the chairman of the committee that advocated the abrogation, in the referendum of 25 and 26 June 2006, on the constitutional reform that had been passed in parliament the previous year by the former centre-right majority. Along with all the centre-left (and a few centre-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 and Enrico De Nicola.

A staunch Catholic, and in the past, a rather conservative and anti-communist politician, Scalfaro nevertheless distrusted many members of the DC who changed support to Forza Italia, and was consistently on bad terms with Silvio Berlusconi. 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.

Scalfaro passed away on 29 January 2012 in Rome.

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 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.

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro coat of arms as a knight of the Swedish Order of the Seraphim

He also received several foreign honours:

• Knight of Magistral Grace of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (1950)
• Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• Denmark : Knight of the Order of the Elephant (19 October 1993)
• Malta : Honorary Companion of Honour with Collar of the National Order of Merit (16 November 1995)
• Spain : Knight of the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (27 June 1996)
• Slovakia : Grand Cross (or 1st Class) of the Order of the White Double Cross (1997)
• Croatia : Recipient of the Grand Order of King Tomislav ("For outstanding contribution to the promotion of friendship and development co-operation between the Republic of Croatia and the Italian Republic." - 17 December 1997)
• Estonia : Collar of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana
• Latvia : Commander Grand Cross (or 1st Class) of the Order of the Three Stars
• Lithuania : Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great (19 May 1997)
• Sweden : Knight of the Order of the Seraphim (30 April 1998)
• Poland : Knight of the Order of the White Eagle
• Uruguay : Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (1995)

Electoral history

Election	House	Constituency	Party		Votes	Result
1946	Constituent Assembly	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	43,218	Y Elected
1948	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	55,499	Y Elected
1953	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	44,705	Y Elected
1958	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	36,060	Y Elected
1963	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	56,987	Y Elected
1968	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	92,979	Y Elected
1972	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	114,187	Y Elected
1976	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	87,459	Y Elected
1979	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	56,815	Y Elected
1983	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	44,325	Y Elected
1987	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	91,722	Y Elected
1992	Chamber of Deputies	Turin–Novara–Vercelli		DC	35,630	Y Elected

External links

• Encyclopædia Britannica, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro - full access article
• (in Italian) La biografia del presidente
• Oscar Luigi Scalfaro at Find a Grave