Giovanni Giolitti
19th, 25th, 29th, 32nd and 37th Prime Minister of Italy
In office June 15, 1920 – July 4, 1921
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel III
Preceded by	Francesco Saverio Nitti
Succeeded by	Ivanoe Bonomi
In office March 30, 1911 – March 21, 1914
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel III
Preceded by	Luigi Luzzatti
Succeeded by	Antonio Salandra
In office May 29, 1906 – December 11, 1909
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel III
Preceded by	Sidney Sonnino
Succeeded by	Sidney Sonnino
In office November 3, 1903 – March 12, 1905
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel III
Preceded by	Giuseppe Zanardelli
Succeeded by	Tommaso Tittoni
In office May 15, 1892 – December 15, 1893
Monarch	Umberto I
Preceded by	Marchese di Rudinì
Succeeded by	Francesco Crispi
Personal details
Born	(1842-10-27)October 27, 1842
Died	July 17, 1928(1928-07-17) (aged 85)
Political party	Liberal / Italian Liberal Party

Giovanni Giolitti (Italian pronunciation: [dʒoˈvanni dʒoˈlitti]; Mondovì, October 27, 1842 – Cavour, July 17, 1928) was an Italian statesman. He was the 19th, 25th, 29th, 32nd and 37th Prime Minister of Italy between 1892 and 1921. He is the second-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history, after Benito Mussolini, becoming Prime Minister on five occasions over 20 years.

Giolitti was a master in the political art of Trasformismo, the method of making a flexible, centrist coalition of government which isolated the extremes of the left and the right in Italian politics after the unification. Under his influence, the Italian Liberals did not develop as a structured party. They were, instead, a series of informal personal groupings with no formal links to political constituencies.^[1] The period between the turn-of-the-twentieth-century to the start of Word War I, when he was Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior from 1901-1914 with only brief interruptions, is often called the Giolittian Era.^[2][3]

A left-wing liberal,^[2] Giolitti's periods in office were notable for the passage of a wide range of progressive social reforms which improved the living standards of ordinary Italians, together with the enactment of several policies of government intervention.^[3][4] Besides putting in place several tariffs, subsidies and government projects, Giolitti also nationalized the private phone and railroad operators. Liberal proponents of free trade criticized the "Giolittian System," although Giolitti himself saw the development of the "national economy" as essential in the "production of wealth."

Early career[link]

Giolitti was born at Mondovì (Piedmont). His father Giovenale Giolitti had been working in the avvocatura dei poveri, an office assisting poor citizens in both civil and criminal cases. He died in 1843, a year after Giovanni was born. The family moved in the home of his mother Enrichetta Plochiù in Turin. At sixteen he entered the University of Turin and earned a law degree in 1860.^[5] Subsequently, he pursued a career in public administration. That choice prevented him to participate in the decisive battles of the Risorgimento (the unification of Italy), for which his temperament was not suited anyway, but this lack of military experience would be held against him as long as the Risorgimento generation was active in politics.^[5][6]

After a rapid career in the financial administration he was, in 1882, appointed councillor of state and elected to the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of Parliament) for the Liberal Left.^[6] As deputy he chiefly acquired prominence by attacks on Agostino Magliani, treasury minister in the cabinet of Agostino Depretis, and on 9 March 1889 was himself selected as treasury minister by Prime Minister Crispi. On the fall of the Antonio di Rudinì cabinet in May 1892, Giolitti, with the help of a court clique, succeeded to the premiership.

First term as Prime Minister[link]

Giolitti's first term as Prime Minister (1892–1893) was marked by misfortune and misgovernment. The building crisis and the commercial rupture with France had impaired the situation of the state banks, of which one, the Banca Romana, had been further undermined by misadministration. The Banca Romana had loaned large sums to property developers but was left with huge liabilities when the real estate bubble collapsed in 1887.^[7] Then Prime Minister Francesco Crispi and his Treasury Minister Giolitti knew of the 1889 government inspection report, but feared that publicity might undermine public confidence and suppressed the report.^[8]

The Bank Act of August 1893 liquidated the Banca Romana and reformed the whole system of note issue, restricting the privilege to the new Banca d'Italia – mandated to liquidate the Banca Romana – and to the Banco di Napoli and the Banco di Sicilia, and providing for stricter state control.^[8][9] The new law failed to effect an improvement. Moreover, he irritated public opinion by raising to senatorial rank the governor of the Banca Romana, Bernardo Tanlongo, whose irregular practices had become a byword, which would have given him immunity from prosecution.^[10] The senate declined to admit Tanlongo, whom Giolitti, in consequence of an intervention in parliament upon the condition of the Banca Romana, was obliged to arrest and prosecute. During the prosecution Giolitti abused his position as premier to abstract documents bearing on the case.

Simultaneously a parliamentary commission of inquiry investigated the condition of the state banks. Its report, though acquitting Giolitti of personal dishonesty, proved disastrous to his political position, and the ensuing Banca Romana scandal obliged him to resign.^[11] His fall left the finances of the state disorganized, the pensions fund depleted, diplomatic relations with France strained in consequence of the massacre of Italian workmen at Aigues-Mortes, and a state of revolt in the Lunigiana and by the Fasci Siciliani in Sicily, which he had proved impotent to suppress. Despite the heavy pressure from the King, the army and conservative circles in Rome, Giolitti neither treated strikes – which were not illegal – as a crime, nor dissolved the Fasci, nor authorised the use of firearms against popular demonstrations.^[12] His policy was “to allow these economic struggles to resolve themselves through amelioration of the condition of the workers” and not to interfere in the process.^[13]

Impeachment and comeback[link]

After his resignation Giolitti was impeached for abuse of power as minister, but the Constitutional Court quashed the impeachment by denying the competence of the ordinary tribunals to judge ministerial acts. For several years he was compelled to play a passive part, having lost all credit. But by keeping in the background and giving public opinion time to forget his past, as well as by parliamentary intrigue, he gradually regained much of his former influence.

He made capital of the Socialist agitation and of the repression to which other statesmen resorted, and gave the agitators to understand that were he premier would remain neutral in labour conflicts. Thus he gained their favour, and on the fall of the Pelloux cabinet in 1900 he made his comeback after eight years. A left-ward shift in parliamentary liberalism after the reactionary crisis of 1898-1900 and he was to dominate Italian politics until the World War I.^[14] He became Minister of the Interior in the administration of Giuseppe Zanardelli, of which he was the real head.^[4]

The Giolittian Era[link]

His policy of never interfering in strikes and leaving even violent demonstrations undisturbed at first proved successful, but indiscipline and disorder grew to such a pitch that Zanardelli, already in bad health, resigned, and Giolitti succeeded him as Prime Minister in November 1903. Giolitti’s prominent role in the years from the turn of the century until 1914 is known as the Giolittian Era, in which Italy experienced an industrial expansion, the rise of organised labour and the emergence of an active Catholic political movement.^[4]

The economic expansion was secured by monetary stability, moderate protectionism and government support of production. Foreign trade doubled between 1900 and 1910, wages rose, and the general standard of living went up.^[15] Nevertheless, the period was also marked by social dislocations.^[6] There was a sharp increase in the frequency and duration of industrial action, with major labour strikes in 1904, 1906 and 1908.^[4] Emigration reached unprecedented levels between 1900 and 1914 and rapid industrialization of the North widened the socio-economic gap with the South. Giolitti was able to get parliamentary support wherever it was possible and from whoever were willing to cooperate with him, including socialist and Catholics, who had been excluded from government before. Although an anti-clerical he got the support of the catholic deputies repaying them by holding back a divorce bill and appointing to influential positions.^[6]

During his second and third tenure as Prime Minister (1903–1905 and 1906–1909), he courted the left and labour unions with social legislation, including subsidies for low-income housing, preferential government contracts for worker cooperatives, and old age and disability pensions.^[4] However, he, too, had to resort to strong measures in repressing some serious disorders in various parts of Italy, and thus he lost the favour of the Socialists. In March 1905, feeling himself no longer secure, he resigned, indicating Fortis as his successor. When Sonnino became premier in February 1906, Giolitti did not openly oppose him, but his followers did. When Sonnino was defeated in May, Giolitti became Prime Minister once more (1906–1909).

Many critics accused Giolitti of manipulating the elections, piling up majorities with the restricted suffrage at the time, using the prefects just as his contenders. However, he did refine the practice in the elections of 1904 and 1909 that gave the liberals secure majorities.^[6]

Giolitti returned to office as Italian Prime Minister from 1911 to 1914. During this time, he bowed to nationalist pressure and fought the controversial Italo-Turkish War which made Libya an Italian colony. In 1912, Giolitti had the parliament approve an electoral reform bill that expanded the electorate from 3 million to 8.5 million voters – introducing near universal male suffrage – while commenting that first "teaching everyone to read and write" would have been a more reasonable route.^[16] Considered his most daring political move, the reform probably hastened the end of the Giolittian Era because his followers controlled fewer seats after the elections of 1913.^[6]

Last term as Prime Minister and the rise of Fascism[link]

A late picture of Giovanni Giolitti.

Giolitti opposed Italy's entry into World War I in 1915 on the grounds that Italy was militarily unprepared. In the electoral campaign of 1919 he charged that an aggressive minority had dragged Italy into war against the will of the majority, putting him at odds with the growing movement of Fascists.^[6] He became Prime Minister for the last time from 1920-1921 during Italy's "red years," when workers’ occupations of factories increased the fear of a communist takeover led the political establishment to tolerate the rise of the fascists of Benito Mussolini. Giolitti enjoyed the support of the fascist squadristi and did not try to stop their forceful takeovers of city and regional government or their violence against their political opponents.

He called for new elections in May 1921 but the disappointing results forced him to step down. Still the head of the liberals, he did not resist the country’s drift towards fascism.^[6] When Mussolini marched on Rome in October 1922, Giolitti was on vacation in France. He supported Mussolini's government initially – accepting and voting in favour of the controversial Acerbo Law^[17] which guaranteed the party gaining at least 25 percent and the largest share of the votes gained two-thirds of the seats in parliament. He shared the widespread hope of that the fascists would become a more moderate and responsible party upon taking power, but withdrew his support in 1924, voting against the law that restricted press freedom.

Death and legacy[link]

Powerless, he remained in Parliament until his death in Cavour, Piedmont on July 17, 1928. According to his biographer Alexander De Grand, Giolitti was Italy's most notable prime minister after Cavour.^[18] Like Cavour, Giolitti came from Piedmont, and like other leading Piedmontese politicians he combined a pragmatism with an Enlightenment faith in progress through material advancement. An able bureaucrat, he had litle sympathy for the idealism that had inspired much of the Risorgimento. He tended to see discontent as rooted in frustrated self-interest and accordingly believed that most opponents had their price and could be transformed eventually into allies.^[14] The primary objective of Giolittian politics was to govern from the center with slight and well controlled fluctuations, now in a conservative direction, then in a progressive one, trying to preserve the institutions and the existing social order.^[18]

He stands out as one of the major liberal reformers of late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe alongside Georges Clemenceau and David Lloyd George. He was a staunch adherent of 19th-century elitist liberalism trying to navigate the new tide of mass politics. A life-long bureaucrat aloof from the electorate, Giolitti introduced near universal male suffrage and tolerated labour strikes. Rather than reform the state as a concession to populism, he sought to accommodate the emancipatory groups, first in his pursuit of coalitions with Socialist and Catholic movements, and finally, at the end of his political life, in a failed courtship with Fascism.^[18]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Giovanni Giolitti

Antonio Giolitti, the post-War leftist politician, was his grandson.

v t e Prime Ministers of Italy Kingdom of Italy Cavour · Ricasoli · Rattazzi · Farini · Minghetti · La Marmora · Ricasoli · Rattazzi · Menabrea · Lanza · Minghetti · Depretis · Cairoli · Depretis · Cairoli · Depretis · Crispi · Starabba · Giolitti · Crispi · Starabba · Pelloux · Saracco · Zanardelli · Giolitti · Tittoni · Fortis · Sonnino · Giolitti · Sonnino · Luzzatti · Giolitti · Salandra · Boselli · Orlando · Nitti · Giolitti · Bonomi · Facta · Mussolini · Badoglio · Bonomi · Parri · De Gasperi Italian Republic De Gasperi · Pella · Fanfani · Scelba · Segni · Zoli · Fanfani · Segni · Tambroni · Fanfani · Leone · Moro · Leone · Rumor · Colombo · Andreotti · Rumor · Moro · Andreotti · Cossiga · Forlani · Spadolini · Fanfani · Craxi · Fanfani · Goria · De Mita · Andreotti · Amato · Ciampi · Berlusconi · Dini · Prodi · D'Alema · Amato · Berlusconi · Prodi · Berlusconi · Monti

v t e Italian Minister of the Interior Kingdom of Italy Minghetti · Ricasoli · Rattazzi · Peruzzi · Lanza · Natoli · Chiaves · Ricasoli · Rattazzi · Gualtiero · Cadorna · Cantelli · Ferraris · Starabba · Lanza · Cantelli · Nicotera · Depretis · Zanardelli · Depretis · Villa · Depretis · Crispi · Nicotera · Giolitti · Crispi · Starabba · Pelloux · Saracco · Giolitti · Zanardelli · Giolitti · Tittoni · Fortis · Sonnino · Giolitti · Sonnino · Luzzatti · Giolitti · Salandra · Orlando · Nitti · Giolitti · Bonomi · Facta · Taddei · Mussolini · Federzoni · Mussolini · Fornaciari · Ricci · Reale · Aldisio · Bonomi · Parri · Romita Italian Republic De Gasperi · Scelba · Spataro · Scelba · Fanfani · Andreotti · Scelba · Tambroni · Segni · Spataro · Scelba · Taviani · Rumor · Taviani · Restivo · Rumor · Taviani · Gui · Moro · Cossiga · Andreotti · Rognoni · Scalfaro · Fanfani · Gava · Scotti · Mancino · Maroni · Brancaccio · Coronas · Napolitano · Jervolino · Bianco · Scajola · Pisanu · Amato · Maroni · Cancellieri

References[link]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

• Amoore, Louise (2005). The Global Resistance Reader, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-33584-1
• Barański, Zygmunt G. & Rebecca J. West (2001). The Cambridge companion to modern Italian culture, Cambbridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-55034-3.
• Coppa, Frank J. (1970). Economic and Ethical Liberalism in Conflict: The extraordinary liberalism of Giovanni Giolitti, Journal of Modem History Vol. 42, No. 2, June 1970.
• De Grand, Alexander J. (2001). The hunchback's tailor: Giovanni Giolitti and liberal Italy from the challenge of mass politics to the rise of fascism, 1882-1922, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-275-96874-X
• Duggan, Christopher (2008). The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISBN 0-618-35367-4
• Killinger, Charles L. (2002). The history of Italy, Westport (CT): Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-31483-7
• Pohl, Manfred & Sabine Freitag (European Association for Banking History) (1994). Handbook on the history of European banks, Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publishing, ISBN 1-85278-919-0
• Sarti, Roland (2004). Italy: a reference guide from the Renaissance to the present, New York: Facts on File Inc., ISBN 0-86104-522-4
• Seton-Watson, Christopher (1967). Italy from liberalism to fascism, 1870-1925, New York: Taylor & Francis, 1967 ISBN 0-416-18940-7

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2011)

Matteo Salvini

Matteo Salvini (born on 9 March 1973, Milan, Italy) is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP)^[1] for the North-West region with the Lega Nord from 2004 to 2006 as part of the Non-Inscrits and now as a member of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group.

He sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education, and was a substitute for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and a member of the Delegation to the EU-Chile Joint Parliamentary Committee. He stood down from the European Parliament in November 2006.

He was re-elected in 2009 as a member of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group. He now sits on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and is a member of the Delegation for Relations with India, and the Delegation for Relations with the Korean Peninsula. He is a Substitute on the Committee on International Trade and the Delegation for Relations with South Africa. ^[1]

He has been a member of Movimento Giovani Padani, Lega Nord's youth movement, and now is deputy secretary of Lega Lombarda, along with Marco Reguzzoni. At the 1997 Padanian elections he was a candidate of the list Comunisti Padani (Padanian Communists).

Education[link]

• 1992: Secondary school-leaving certificate in classical subjects

Career[link]

• since 1998: Lega Nord Provincial Secretary for Milan
• since 1993: Member of Milan City Council

Controversies[link]

• June 14, 2009: during a Lega Nord meeting in Pontida, he has been filmed while singing a song with the following lyrics (bare, literal translation from Italian): "Oh what a bad smell, even the dogs run away: Neapolitans are coming! Oh cholera transporters, oh earthquake victims... you've never used soap to wash yourselves" that is a well known soccer song among the Italian hooligans but it is a clearly racist and discriminating song.

See also[link]

• European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy)

References[link]

External links[link]

• European Parliament biography of Matteo Salvini (incl. Speeches, Questions and Motions)

This article about a Member of the European Parliament from Italy is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e