Antonio Segni (; 2 February 1891 – 1 December 1972) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the president of Italy from 1962 to 1964, and as Prime Minister of Italy from 1955 to 1957 and again from 1959 to 1960.
A member of the Christian Democracy party, Segni held numerous prominent offices in Italy's post-war period, serving as the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Defence, Agriculture, and Public Education. He was the first Sardinian to become head of state and government. He was also the second shortest-serving president in the history of the Republic and the first to resign from office, due to illness.Dimissioni del Presidente della Repubblica, Panorama
Early life Segni was born in Sassari in 1891. His father, Celestino Segni, was a lawyer and professor at the University of Sassari, while his mother, Annetta Campus, was a housewife. He grew up in a well-off family, involved in Sardinian politics; his father served as municipal and provincial councilor for Sassari, as well as deputy mayor during the early 1910s.Antonio Segni, Dizionario Biografico, Enciclopedia Treccani He began studying at the University of Sassari, where he would found a section of Azione Cattolica Italiana.
In 1913, Segni graduated with merit at the University of Sassari, with the thesis Il vadimonium on civil procedure in Roman law. He completed his studies in Rome with Giuseppe Chiovenda, of which he became the favorite student; in the law firm of the jurist, he met Piero Calamandrei, with whom he built a close friendship that would last a lifetime.Antonio Segni, un europeista al Quirinale, La Nuova Sardegna
When the World War I broke out, Segni was enlisted as an artillery officer. Discharged, after some months, he continued his profession as lawyer, specializing in civil procedure. In 1920, he started his academic career as law professor at the University of Perugia. In 1921, he married Laura Carta Caprino (18 April 1896 – 21 July 1977)LE SORELLE SASSARESI LAURA E VANNINA CARTA CAPRINO, MOGLI RISPETTIVAMENTE DEL PRESIDENTE ANTONIO SEGNI E DEL PROF. CARLO VERCESI daughter of a rich landowner,Laura Carta Caprino, Getty with whom he had four children, including Mario, who would become a prominent politician during the early 1990s.Mariotto Segni, Enciclopedia Treccani
During these years, Segni started his involvement in politics. In 1919, he joined the Italian People's Party (PPI), a Christian democratic party, led by Don Luigi Sturzo. In 1923, he was appointed in party's national council. Segni ran in the 1924 Italian general election for Sardinia's constituency but was not elected.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 He remained a member of the PPI until all political organizations were dissolved by Benito Mussolini two years later in 1926. For the next 17 years, Segni left political life, continuing to teach civil procedure and agrarian law at the universities of Pavia, Perugia, Cagliari, and Sassari, where he later served as rector from 1946 to 1951.La Biografia del Presidente Segni, quirinale.it
Early political career In 1943, after the fall of Mussolini's Fascist regime, Segni was one of the founders of Christian Democracy (DC), the heir of the PPI. On 12 December 1944, he was appointed Undersecretary to the Ministry of Agriculture in the second Bonomi government.Governo Bonomi II, governo.it
Minister of Agriculture
In the 1946 Italian general election, Segni was elected to the Constituent Assembly for the consistency of Cagliari–Sassari–Nuoro, receiving more than 40,000 votes.Elezioni del 1946: Collegio di Cagliari–Sassari–Nuoro, Ministero dell'Interno On 13 July 1946, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture in the second De Gasperi government.Governo De Gasperi II, governo.it As minister, he primarily focused on the growth of agricultural production, functional to improving Italy's conditions after the end of the war. Segni tried to reform agricultural contracts but was strongly opposed by conservatives and by many members of the DC. The failure of this legislative proposal accelerated the timing of the development of the land reform.La Riforma Agraria, Occupazione delle Terre
The land reform, approved by the Italian Parliament in October 1950, was financed in part by the funds of the Marshall Plan launched by the United States in 1947 and considered by some scholars as the most important reform of the entire post-war period.Corrado Barberis, Teoria e storia della riforma agraria, Florence, Vallecchi, 1957 Segni's reform proposed, through forced expropriation, the distribution of land to agricultural labourers, thus making them small entrepreneurs and no longer subject to the large landowner.Riforma agraria e modernizzazione rurale in Italia nel ventesimo secolo If in some ways the reform had this beneficial result, for others it significantly reduced the size of farms, effectively removing any possibility of transforming them into advanced businesses. This negative element was mitigated and in some cases eliminated by forms of cooperatives.Alcide De Gasperi tra riforma agraria e guerra fredda (1948–1950)
Segni, who was a landowner, ordered the expropriation of most of his own estate in Sardinia. He became known as a "white Bolshevik" for his agrarian reforms.Il colle più alto Modern historians assert that landowners were instead favoured by Segni, and his decrees allowed them to reclaim land that had been granted to the peasantry by the preceding administration.Ginsborg, Paul (2003). A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 122
Minister of Public Education In July 1951, after a cabinet reshuffle, Segni left his office as Minister of Agriculture and was appointed the Italian Minister of Public Education in De Gasperi's seventh government, succeeding Guido Gonella.VII Governo De Gasperi, camera.it
As minister, Segni was particularly involved in the fight against illiteracy, in the improvement of teaching activities, and in the construction of new schools around the country; however, he did not continue the important reforms started by his predecessor. He tried to implement the reform step by step but encountered strong resistance, even in the ministries that were supposed to finance these measures. Segni proposed to replace the high school exam with an admission test to university, but this was rejected.Antonio Segni, Salvatore Mura, il Mulino His reforms, which also received various appreciations from the opposition parties due to his secular idea of school that was very different from that of Gonella, were not ambitious as the ones of his predecessor.Educazione, laicità e democrazia, Antonio Santoni
The 1953 Italian general election was characterised by changes in the electoral law. Even if the general structure remained uncorrupted, the government introduced a majority bonus system of two-thirds of seats in the country's Chamber of Deputies for the coalition that would obtain at-large the absolute majority of votes. The change was strongly opposed by both the opposition parties and DC's smaller coalition partners that had no realistic chance of success under this system. The new law was called the scam law by its detractors,Also its parliamentarian exam had a disruptive effect: "Among the iron pots of political forces that faced in the Cold War, Senate cracked as earthenware pot": including some dissidents of minor government parties who founded special opposition groups to deny the artificial landslide victory of the DC.
The campaign of the opposition to the electoral law achieved its goal, as the government coalition won 49.9% of national vote, just a few thousand votes of the threshold for a supermajority, resulting in an ordinary proportional distribution of the seats. Technically, the government won the election, winning a clear working majority of seats in both houses. In July 1953, Segni was ousted from office in the newly formed government of Alcide De Gasperi.Governo De Gasperi VIII, camera.it Frustration with the failure to win a supermajority caused significant tensions in the leading coalition, and De Gasperi was forced to resign by the Italian Parliament on 2 August. , in L’Ago e il filo, 2014 On 17 August, Italian president Luigi Einaudi appointed Pella as new prime minister, who selected Segni as his Minister of Public Education.Mattarella cita Einaudi e l'incarico a Pella: fu il primo governo del presidente Pella remained in power only for five months.Governo Pella, Governo.itCattolico e risorgimentale, Pella e il caso di Trieste In the successive governments of Amintore Fanfani and Mario Scelba, Segni was not appointed in any office.Composizione del Governo Scelba, senato.it
Prime Minister of Italy In the 1955 Italian presidential election held on 28–29 April of that year, Giovanni Gronchi was elected the new president of the Republic."Danger on the Left", Time, 9 May 1955 After the election, a political crisis between prime minister Scelba and DC's leader Fanfani broke out. In July 1955, Scelba resigned from the office, and Segni received the task of forming a new cabinet.Governo Segni I, governo.it He started consultations with parties to explore the possibilities of forming a new coalition government, obtaining the approval of DC, Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) and Italian Liberal Party (PLI), and the external support from the Italian Republican Party (PRI). On 6 July, Segni sworn in as the new prime minister. On 18 July, the government's program was approved by the Chamber of Deputies with 293 votes in favour and 265 against. On 22 July, the Senate of the Republic approved the confidence vote with 121 votes in favour and 100 against.Il governo Segni I
First government
Segni's first government is widely considered among the most important cabinets in the history of the Republic.I primi passi della Presidenza Gronchi ed il governo Segni During his premiership, in 1955, Italy became a member of the United Nations (UN) in 1955.60 anni dell'Italia all'ONU, Ministero degli Esteri In March 1957, Segni signed the Treaty of Rome, which brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), between Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany.Cosa sono i Trattati di Roma e perché sono importanti, il Post The Treaty of Rome still remains one of the two most important treaties in the modern-day European Union (EU).Trattati di Roma: cosa sono e perché sono stati celebrati, il Post
Segni had always been a strong supporter of European integration; according to him, in a world governed by great powers, European unity was the only possible way to influence the world. He also strengthened relations with West Germany, becoming a close friend of Konrad Adenauer.Italia e mondo tedesco all'epoca di Adenauer As premier, he also had to face the complicated Suez Crisis of 1956, in which he staunchly defended Italy's economic interests in the area, always bearing in mind the need to safeguard Atlantic and European solidarity.La crisi di Suez e la fine del primato dell’Europa
During his premiership, Segni often had conflict with Fanfani, who believed that the government should have a more critical attitude towards the Anglo-French choices. Moreover, the brutal Soviet repression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 further divided Segni and Fanfani. Segni opposed an anti-communist legislative intervention, as Fanfani asked. The clash between the two leaders was so bitter that Segni threatened to resign. In his diary, Segni wrote: "The events of Hungary are unfortunately subjected to repressive political speculation. I refuse to speculate on them."Diario (1956–1964), S. Mura, 2012, page 101)