The Honorable Mario Scelba |
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33rd Prime Minister of Italy | |
In office February 10, 1954 – July 6, 1955 |
|
President | Luigi Einaudi |
Preceded by | Amintore Fanfani |
Succeeded by | Antonio Segni |
Minister of the Interior | |
In office July 26, 1960 – February 21, 1962 |
|
Prime Minister | Amintore Fanfani |
Preceded by | Giuseppe Spataro |
Succeeded by | Paolo Emilio Taviani |
In office February 10, 1954 – July 6, 1955 |
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Prime Minister | Himself |
Preceded by | Giulio Andreotti |
Succeeded by | Fernando Tambroni |
In office February 2, 1947 – July 16, 1953 |
|
Prime Minister | Alcide De Gasperi |
Preceded by | Alcide De Gasperi |
Succeeded by | Amintore Fanfani |
Minister of Communications | |
In office June 21, 1945 – February 2, 1947 |
|
Prime Minister |
Ferruccio Parri Alcide De Gasperi |
Preceded by | Mario Cevolotto |
Succeeded by | Luigi Cacciatore |
President of the European Parliament | |
In office 1969–1971 |
|
Preceded by | Alain Poher |
Succeeded by | Walter Behrendt |
Personal details | |
Born |
Caltagirone, Sicily, Italy |
September 5, 1901
Died | October 29, 1991 Rome, Latium, Italy |
(aged 90)
Nationality | Italian |
Political party | Christian Democracy |
Mario Scelba (September 5, 1901 – October 29, 1991) was an Italian Christian Democratic politician who served as the 33rd Prime Minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955. He was also President of the European Parliament from 1969 to 1971.
Scelba was born in Caltagirone, Sicily, the son of a poor sharecropper on land owned by the priest Don Luigi Sturzo, one of the founders of the Italian People's Party (Partito Popolare Italiano, PPI). He studied law and graduated at the University of Rome.
Scelba was Sturzo's godchild and protégé. Sturzo paid for his law studies in Rome and employed him as his private secretary. When the Fascists suppressed the PPI and forced Sturzo into exile (in Brooklyn, part of the time), Scelba remained in Rome as his agent. He wrote for the underground paper Il Popolo during World War II. Arrested by the Germans, he was released within three days as a worthless catch.
On the day of Rome's liberation by the Allied forces, he joined the new five-man national directorate of the Christian Democracy (Democrazia Cristiana, DC). The Christian Democrats started organising post-Fascist Italy in competition with, but also for a time in coalition with, the parties of the centre and left. In 1945, Scelba won a seat in the post-war Italian Constituent Assembly and entered Ferruccio Parri's anti-fascist government as Minister of Post and Telecommunications, a post he retained in the two successive governments of Alcide de Gasperi.