Alcide De Gasperi

The Italian statesman Alcide De Gasperi (1881-1954) was one of the founders of Italian democracy after World War II.

Alcide De Gasperi was born on April 3, 1881, at Pieve Tesino in Trentino, then controlled by Austria. As a young man, he became active in the Irredentist movement to bring Italian-speaking people still under Austrian jurisdiction into the kingdom of Italy. In 1906 he began publication of the polemical journal II Trentino. This brought him a good deal of attention, and in 1911 he was elected to the Austrian Parliament as deputy for Trentino, a post he held for 6 years.

De Gasperi then joined the new Catholic People's party (Partito Popolare Italiano), founded by the Catholic political leader Don Luigi Sturzo. Trentino became part of Italy following World War I, and De Gasperi served as a deputy in the Italian Parliament from 1921 to 1924. Hard work brought him a position of eminence, and when Don Sturzo was forced into exile in 1924, De Gasperi became general secretary of the party.

As Mussolini's hold on the Italian government grew stronger, the position of the party became ever more precarious, and in 1926 it was dissolved. De Gasperi was imprisoned but was released 3 years later when, amid the atmosphere of good feeling between Mussolini and the Vatican, the archbishop of Trent intervened on his behalf. De Gasperi found asylum and temporary peace in the Vatican, where he studied Catholic social doctrine.

During World War II De Gasperi became active in the underground and was one of the founders of the illegal Christian Democratic party (Democrazia Christiana). He also founded the newspaper Popolo. After the liberation of Italy in June 1944, he served as minister without portfolio and then as foreign minister; in December 1945 he became premier, a post he held until 1953. As chief of the Italian delegation at the World War II peace conference, he elicited concessions from the Allies that guaranteed Italian sovereignty.

After the formal end of the monarchy in June 1946, De Gasperi functioned as head of the Christian Democrats, the party that dominated Parliament for the next 8 years. As premier, he gave moderate guidance that kept a precarious balance, during this critical postwar period, between disparate elements within the party and the nation. By avoiding conflicts with the numerous Socialists and Communists, he managed with great delicacy to put Italian democracy on a firm foundation. Besides his successful negotiations with the Allied Powers, his most striking achievement in foreign policy was the agreement with Austria (September 1946) to establish the southern Tirol as an autonomous region.

When the Christian Democrats did not gain a majority in the elections of 1953, De Gasperi was unable to establish a workable Cabinet and was forced to resign as premier. The following year he also had to forgo the leadership of his party, and 2 months later, on Aug. 19, 1954, he died.

Further Reading

Sources on De Gasperi in English are scarce. Elisa A. Carrillo, Alcide de Gasperi: The Long Apprenticeship (1965), covers his early life through his entry into the Quirinale as premier. Consult Denis Mack Smith, Italy: A Modern History (1959), for the political picture. English translations of the works by Luigi Sturzo that are helpful are Church and State (1939), Italy and the Coming World (1945), and Italy and Fascism (1967). □

De Gasperi, Alcide (b. 3 Apr. 1881, d. 19 Aug. 1954). Italian Prime Minister 1945–53 Born in the Trentino (which was then part of Austria-Hungary), he graduated from the University of Vienna in 1905. He became politically active in the Italian Catholic Social Movement and in 1911 he entered the Austrian Parliament as a representative of the Trentine Popular Party, which stood for local autonomy. Following Italy's acquisition of Trentino after World War I, he became active in the Italian Popular Party and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1921. An outspoken opponent of the Fascist movement, he took part in the Aventine Secession, which lost him his parliamentary seat in 1926. He was arrested in 1927, but after his release in 1929 took refuge in the Vatican, where he advanced from a cataloguer to secretary of the Vatican Library.

After the liberation of Rome in 1944 he became active in the newly founded Christian Democratic Party (DC), and in December 1945 he became the party's first Prime Minister. In his long (especially by Italian standards) period of office, he laid the foundations for an Italian republic committed to NATO and oriented towards US friendship, a relatively liberal financial policy, and a social policy directed at social compromise. Increasingly he also became a strong advocate of European integration. By contrast, he failed to introduce fundamental administrative or judicial reforms, for example. His tenure of office inaugurated the DC's uninterrupted participation in national government until its dissolution in 1994. He resisted any attempt for the DC to become a confessional (Roman Catholic) party, even though he was happy to accept the Church's support in general elections. At the same time, he steered the DC along a violently anti-Communist course, from which it liberated itself only in the 1970s under Andreotti. He resigned in July 1953 after he failed to gain an absolute majority for the DC and its allies in the parliamentary elections, though he remained party secretary until his death.

Alcide De Gasperi , 1881–1954, Italian premier and a founder of the Christian Democratic party. Born in the Trentino—then under Austria—he represented Italian irredentists in the Austrian parliament and after the transfer of the Trentino to Italy at the end of World War I served (1921–24) as a Catholic deputy in the Italian parliament. After 16 months of imprisonment as an anti-Fascist, De Gasperi received (1931) a position at the Vatican Library; there he organized during World War II the center-right Christian Democratic party. A successor in part to Luigi Sturzo's Popular party, the moderately conservative group derived its program from the social teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. After the Italian surrender in 1943 he held several cabinet posts. From 1945 to 1953 he was premier of eight successive coalition cabinets dominated by the Christian Democrats, and as such was the main architect of Italy's initial postwar, post-Fascist recovery. In 1947, De Gasperi excluded the Communists and left-wing Socialists from the government, and in 1948 his party won a major electoral victory. De Gasperi inaugurated land reform, championed close cooperation with the United States, and led Italy into the European Recovery Program and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

de Gasperi, Alcide (1881–1954) Italian statesman. He was elected to the Austro-Hungarian Parliament in 1911, and became Secretary-General of the Italian People's Party (1919–25). From 1929 to 1943 he was given refuge from MUSSOLINI's regime by the Vatican. He played an important part in creating the Christian Democrat Party as a focus for moderate opinion after the fascist era. De Gasperi was Prime Minister from 1945 to 1953, during which time he adopted a strong stand against communism and in favour of European cooperation.

De Gasperi, Alcide (1881–1954) Italian statesman, prime minister (1945–53). De Gasperi was born in Trentino, then under Austrian rule. He struggled successfully for its reunification with Italy. A staunch anti-fascist, De Gasperi was imprisoned twice in the 1920s. During World War II, he founded the Italian Christian Democratic Party. De Gasperi is regarded as the chief architect of Italy's post-war recovery. He led Italy into NATO, and championed closer relations with the USA.

Gasperi, Alcide de (1881–1954) Italian statesman, prime minister (1945–53). Gasperi was elected to the Austro-Hungarian parliament in 1911, and in 1921 entered the Italian parliament as a founder of the Italian People's Party. A strong opponent of fascism, he was imprisoned during Mussolini's regime. During World War II, he was active in the resistance and helped to create the Christian Democratic Party. As prime minister, he contributed greatly to Italy's postwar recovery.

Alcide de Gasperi see De Gasperi, Alcide .