Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( , , ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000)Profile of Bettino Craxi was an Italian politician and statesman, 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 member to become prime minister and the second from a socialist party to hold the office. He led the fourth-longest government in the Italian Republic and he is considered one of the most influential politicians of Italy.I tre più potenti? Agnelli, Craxi e De Mita
Craxi was involved in investigations conducted by judges in Milan, eventually being convicted for political corruption and illicit financing of the PSI.Craxi, tutti i processi e le condanne He always rejected the charges of corruption while admitting to the illegal funding that permitted costly political activity, the PSI being less financially powerful than the two larger parties, Christian Democracy (DC) and the Italian Communist Party (PCI).Bettino Craxi, discorso sul finanziamento politico, Camera dei Deputati, 3 luglio 1992 Craxi's government and party were also supported by future prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a media magnate and personal friend of Craxi.Berlusconi, 20 anni fa la discesa in campo. Con la regia di Craxi e Dell'Utri
Craxi maintained strong links with many leaders of the Western European left, including François Mitterrand, Felipe González, Andreas Papandreou, and Mário Soares, and was one of the main representatives of Western European socialism.Tobias Apse, "Italy: A New Agenda" in "Mapping the West European Left", edited by Perry Anderson and Patrick Camiller, 1994, pp. 189-233La politica estera di Bettino Craxi nel Mediterraneo: dalla segreteria al governo. Craxi's supporters especially praised his foreign policy, which was assertive and often led to confrontations with the United States, on issues such as Palestinian territories, terrorism, and Craxi's close relations with Arab socialist governments."Craxi, Benedetto (Bettino)" in Mark Gilbert, Robert K. Nilsson, "The A to Z of Modern Italy", pp. 119-120, 2010
Craxi was often nicknamed by his detractors ('The Big Boar') due to his physical size.E Feltri esaltava Di Pietro contro il CinghialoneIo che azzannai il Cinghialone e non vidi gli orrori dei giudici This name was given him by his long-time ally and rival at the same time, DC leader Giulio Andreotti.
Early life Craxi was born in Milan on 24 February 1934. His father Vittorio Craxi was a Sicilian lawyer and anti-fascist who was persecuted by the regime of Benito Mussolini while his mother Maria Ferrari was a housewife from Sant'Angelo Lodigiano. During World War II, the young Craxi was sent to the Catholic college Edmondo De Amicis due to his unruly character and to protect him from fascist violence in retaliation for his father's anti-fascist activities.Craxi, Bettino – Enciclopedia Treccani
After the war, his father assumed the role of vice-prefect in Milan and then the prefect in Como, where he moved with his family in 1945. A few months later, Craxi returned to college, first in Como and then in Cantù, where he considered entering a seminary.Bettino Craxi – Scheda biografica Craxi's father stood in the 1948 Italian general election for the Popular Democratic Front, a political alliance between the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and the Italian Communist Party (PCI). He campaigned for his father and later joined the PSI at the age of 17.La Biografia di Bettino Craxi
Early political career
Craxi was precocious and rose to many levels of public office at an early age. Meanwhile, he attended the faculty of Law in University of Milan and then the faculty of Political Science in Urbino, Craxi founded the "Socialist University Nucleus" joining the "New University" group and adhering to the CUDI (Italian Democratic University Centre), the student group that supported the left-wing forces.
During this period he engaged for the first time in public speaking, organizing conferences, debates, and film screenings, and in 1956 he became part of the PSI Provincial Committee in Milan, and leader of the Socialist Youth Federation.Milano–Hammamet, viaggio di sola andata
In 1956, following the Soviet invasion of Hungary, Craxi with a group of loyalists committed himself to the detachment of the Socialist Party from its pro-Communist policy, but he failed: his proposal to associate the Socialist Youth Movement with the International Organisation of Democratic Youth was rejected.
In November 1956 he was elected town councillor in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano (birthplace of his mother), and in 1957 he was elected to the Central Committee of the PSI representing the autonomist current of Pietro Nenni.Bettino Craxi – Opera Omnia
In 1958 the party sent him to Sesto San Giovanni as a responsible of the organization; in November 1960 he was elected city councilor in Milan with more than 1,000 preferences and became assessor in the junta of Gino Cassinis.
In 1961 he was excluded from the Central Committee of the Socialist Party by the new Secretary Francesco De Martino. In 1963 he was appointed leader of the Milan Provincial Secretariat of the PSI and in 1965 Craxi became a member of the National Leadership. Meanwhile, in November 1964, he was re-elected city councillor in Milan, continuing his public commitment as assessor for Charity and Assistance in the council of Pietro Bucalossi.La formazione di Craxi nel contesto milanese
In 1966, with the formation of the Unified Socialist Party, a political alliance between the Socialist Party and the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI), Craxi became provincial secretary of the PSU in Milan, along with by the social democrat Enrico Rizzi and Renzo Peruzzotti.
In 1968 general election Craxi was elected for the first time at the Chamber of Deputies with 23,788 votes, in the constituency of Milan–Pavia. In 1970 after the end of the PSU alliance, Craxi became Vice Secretary of the PSI, as proposed by Giacomo Mancini.
During this period he was a strong supporters of the Organic Centre-left coalition, between the Christian Democrats of Aldo Moro and Amintore Fanfani, the Socialists of Pietro Nenni, the Social Democrats of Giuseppe Saragat and the Republicans of Ugo La Malfa.L'era di Craxi, in 16 anni dagli altari alla polvere
In 1972 with the re-election of Francesco De Martino as National Secretary of the Socialist Party during the Genoa Congress, Craxi was confirmed with Giovanni Mosca in the role of Deputy Secretary, receiving the commission to treat the international relations of the party. As the representative of PSI at the Socialist International, Craxi formed ties with some of the main European future leaders, like Willy Brandt, Felipe González, François Mitterrand, Mário Soares, Michel Rocard and Andreas Papandreou.Craxi e il PSI
As responsible for the PSI foreign policy he supported, also financially, some socialist parties banned by the dictatorships of their respective countries, including the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement and the Chilean Socialist Party of Salvador Allende, of whom Craxi was a personal friend.Conferito il premio Salvador Allende alla memoria di Bettino Craxi
Secretary of the PSI In 1976 the Secretary Francesco De Martino wrote an article in the Socialist newspaper Avanti! that caused the fall of the government Aldo Moro and the subsequent snap election, which saw an impressive growth of the Italian Communist Party led by a young leader, Enrico Berlinguer, while the Christian Democracy managed to remain the majority party on just a few votes. Instead for the PSI, those elections were a crushing defeat: the votes went down under the threshold of 10%. De Martino, pointing to a new alliance with the Communists, was forced to resign and opened a serious crisis within the party.Craxi, Benedetto detto Bettino
Craxi was appointed to the vacant position of National Secretary of the party, ending years of factional fighting within the PSI. Ironically, the "old guard" saw him as short-lived leader, allowing each faction time to regroup. However, he was able to consolidate power and implement his policies. In particular, he sought and managed to distance the party from the Communists, bringing it into an alliance with Christian Democracy and other centrist parties, while maintaining a leftist and reformist profile.
Craxi always opposed the Historic Compromise policy of Moro and Berlinguer, a political alliance and an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Communists; the alliance would inevitably make the Socialists politically irrelevant. He outlined for a line of alternation between the DC and the left wing, represented by his party, due to the close relations between the PCI and the Soviet Union.A new band of brothers. The Economist (London, England), Saturday, 18 October 1980; pg. 47; Issue 7155.
On the morning of 16 March 1978, the day on which the new cabinet led by Giulio Andreotti was supposed to have undergone a confidence vote in the Italian Parliament, the car of Aldo Moro, former prime minister and then president of DC was assaulted by a group of Red Brigades terrorists in Via Fani in Rome. Firing automatic weapons, the terrorists killed Moro's bodyguards and kidnapped him. Craxi was the only political leader, together with Amintore Fanfani and Marco Pannella, to declare himself available to a "humanitarian solution" that would allow the liberation of Christian Democrat statesman, drawing heavy criticism on the so-called "party of firmness", primarily driven by the Communists.Acquaviva, Gennaro, and Luigi Covatta. Moro-Craxi: fermezza e trattativa trent'anni dopo / a cura di Gennaro Acquaviva e Luigi Covatta; prefazione di Piero Craveri. n.p.: Venezia : Marsilio, 2009. On 9 May 1978 Moro's body was found in the trunk of a Renault 4 in Via Caetani after 55 days of imprisonment, during which Moro was submitted to a political trial by the so-called "people's court" set up by the Brigate Rosse and the Italian government was asked for an exchange of prisoners.
In 1978 Craxi decided to change the party logo. He chose a red carnation to represent the new course of the party, in honour of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. The party shrank the size of the old hammer and sickle in the lower part of the symbol. It was eventually eliminated altogether in 1985.Qualcuno era comunista
In July 1978, following the resignation of President Giovanni Leone, after a lengthy parliamentary battle, Craxi was able to bring together a large number of votes, electing Sandro Pertini, as new president; Pertini was the first Socialist to hold this position. Pertini was also supported by the Communists, which considered the old Socialist partisan not conducive to the "new course" of Craxi.With the ardour of those who drove merchants from the temple, Speaker Pertini ordered to drive away the "whips" from the aisle, accelerating the outcome of the presidential election in 1971 :
Craxi, on the one hand explicitly distanced himself from Leninism referring to forms of authoritarian socialism, and on the other he showed support to the civil society movements and to the battles for civil rights, mainly proposed by the Radical Party, he oversaw its image through the media.Il primo riformista italiano