Arnaldo Forlani

Early life and career

Forlani was born on 8 December 1925, in Pesaro, Marche. As a youth, he played as a midfielder for Vis Pesaro in the Serie C of the Italian football league.

In 1954, Forlani became a member of the central committee of Christian Democracy, as member of the right-wing faction. In the 1958 Italian general election, Forlani was elected in the Chamber of Deputies for the first time. Forlani soon became one of the closest collaborators of Amintore Fanfani, as an exponent of the Nuove Cronache DC current, of which Forlani became its number two in 1959. In 1962, he was elected national vice-secretary of Christian Democracy, under Aldo Moro's leadership. He held this position for seven years until 1969 under the secretariat of Mariano Rumor and Flaminio Piccoli.

Secretary of Christian Democracy

In December 1968, Rumor became Prime Minister of Italy and appointed Forlani as Minister of Public Shares. In August 1969, he became Minister for the Relations with the United Nations in the second Rumor government.

The DC's comfortable victory in the 1970 Italian regional elections, with 37% of the vote nationwide and victory in all regions except three, did not allow Forlani to achieve that DC's candidate for the 1971 Italian presidential election. His former mentor Fanfani gained enough confidence of the Chamber of Deputies. Forlani's second candidate was Aldo Moro, but this nomination was rejected by the Italian Parliament. At the end, the DC proposed Giovanni Leone, former prime minister and long-time president of the Chamber of Deputies, who was elected with the support of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement.

In the 1972 Italian general election, which took place on 7 May, the advance of the right in the country was stopped, remaining stable with around 38% of the votes. Fanfani succeeded Forlani as secretary of the DC in the 1973 party congress. In 1976, Forlani tried to regain the party's secretariat as representative of the moderate internal current against the pacts with the PCI, but was defeated by Benigno Zaccagnini, who represented the more left-wing bloc.

Member of the government

Between 1974 and 1976, Forlani was Minister of Defence. When the Italian Republican Party (PRI) left Moro's cabinet in 1976, no possibilities of a new government remained, and an early vote was called. After the election, which saw a great success of the PCI, Giulio Andreotti became the new prime minister and Forlani was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. The reasons of this important nomination were firstly the necessity to recover a climate of unity in the party after the congressional divisions and secondly the opportunity, in a world still marked by the Cold War, to allocate foreign policy to a clearly anti-communist personality, as Forlani was, able to calm the European and US partners. During his ministry, Forlani strongly supported the European integration process and the adhesion of Portugal to the European Economic Community.

Prime Minister of Italy

In 1980, Forlani was among the main sponsor of Flaminio Piccoli in the party congress. Piccoli was elected secretary at the head of a centre-right majority. Due to his fundamental role in Piccoli's election, Forlani was appointed Prime Minister of Italy in October, leading a centrist and closer to centre-left coalition with PSI, PSDI and PRI.

1980 Irpinia earthquake

Main article: 1980 Irpinia earthquake

During his premiership, Forlani had to face the Irpinia earthquake, a strong shock, that was centered on the village of Conza in Campania, and left at least 2,483 people dead, at least 7,700 injured, and left 250,000 homeless. Forlani's government spent 59 trillion lire on reconstruction, while other nations sent contributions. West Germany contributed 32 million United States dollars (USD) and the United States US$70 million.

In the early 1990s, a major corruption scandal emerged. Of the billions of lire that were predestined for aid to the victims and rebuilding, the largest part disappeared from the earthquake reconstruction funds in the 1980s. Of the $40 billion spent on earthquake reconstruction, an estimated $20 billion went to create an entirely new social class of millionaires in the region, $6.4 billion went to the Camorra, whereas another $4 billion went to politicians in bribes. Only the remaining $9.6 billion a quarter of the total amount, was actually spent on people's needs. Moreover, the Italian Mafia entered the construction industry after the quake.

P2 scandal and resignation

During his premiership, the list of who belonged to the secret lodge Propaganda Due (P2) was published. The P2 was a Masonic lodge founded in 1945 that by the time its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, it had transformed into a clandestine, pseudo-Masonic, and far-right organisation, operating in contravention of Article 18 of the Constitution of Italy that banned secret societies. In its latter period, during which the lodge was headed by Licio Gelli, P2 was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries, including the collapse of the Vatican-affiliated Banco Ambrosiano, the murders of journalist Mino Pecorelli and banker Roberto Calvi, and corruption cases within the nationwide bribe scandal Tangentopoli. P2 came to light through the investigations into the collapse of Michele Sindona's financial empire.

P2 was sometimes referred to as a "state within a state", or a "shadow government". The lodge had among its members prominent journalists, members of Parliament, industrialists, and military leaders—including Silvio Berlusconi, who later became Prime Minister of Italy; the House of Savoy royal pretender to the Italian throne Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples; and the heads of all three Italian intelligence services (at the time SISDE, SISMI, and CESIS). When searching Gelli's villa in 1981, the police found a document called the "Plan for Democratic Rebirth", which called for a consolidation of the media, suppression of trade unions, and the rewriting of the Italian Constitution. The lateness with which they were published gained Forlani heavy criticism, in particular from the PCI. He was therefore compelled to resign from the position, staying away from the spotlight of politics for a certain period. With his resignation and the appointment of PRI leader Giovanni Spadolini, the unbroken line since 1945 of Christian Democrat prime ministers came to an end.

After the premiership

At the PSI party congress in 1981, Forlani and PSI leader Bettino Craxi signed an agreement with the "blessing" of Andreotti, in which began the Pentapartito.

Second term as secretary

At the 18th party congress, Forlani was elected secretary of the DC for a second time, with 85% of votes.

1992 election and presidential ambitions

At the end of 1991, Forlani convened the National Programmatic Conference of the DC in Milan in which he warned that the First Italian Republic was collapsing and identified the constructive vote of no confidence and an electoral reform of proportional representation towards a mixed electoral system with first-past-the-post as one of his main remedies. 1992 was revolutionised by the Mani pulite investigation, and in the 1992 Italian general election, held on 5 April, Christian Democracy suffered significant losses. In the 1992 Italian presidential election, the DC proposed Forlani as its candidate. During the 5th and 6th ballots, held on 16 May, Forlani missed the election by 39 and 29 votes respectively. Following these defeats, Forlani withdrew his candidacy as president of Italy.

Judicial case, resignation and decline

In 1992, Forlani was charged to two years and four months in prison for illicit financing for his involvement in the Tangentopoli scandal. He did not stand for re-election as deputy in the 1994 Italian general election, ending an uninterrupted parliamentary career that began in 1958.

Personal life and death

Forlani married Alma Maria, from whom he was widowed on 6 October 2015 when she died at the age of 86. They had three sons: Alessandro, Marco, and Luigi. Alessandro also had a stint in Italian politics, becoming a deputy and senator. Forlani died on 6 July 2023 in his house of Rome at the age of 97. The government declared a day of mourning on July 10 and between 8 and 10 July, Flags were at half mast. The government also announced a state funeral that took place on 10 July in Rome's Santi Pietro e Paolo a Via Ostiense basilica.

Electoral history

References

References

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