Giovanni Leone (; 3 November 1908 – 9 November 2001) was an Italian politician, jurist and university professor who was the president of Italy from 1971 to 1978.Giovanni Leone, il sesto presidente della Repubblica, Archivio Luce A founding member of Christian Democracy (DC), Leone briefly served as Prime Minister of Italy from June to December 1963 and again from June to December 1968.I Governo Leone, Camera dei Deputati He was also President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1955 to 1963.Giovanni Leone, Camera dei Deputati
Leone was the first Italian president to resign because of a scandal. In 1978, he was accused of bribery amid the Lockheed bribery scandals; the allegations were later declared false, and he was rehabilitated.Giovanni Leone: travolto da accuse infondate, il 15 giugno 1978 si dimette il 6° Presidente della Repubblica, Periodico Daily
Early life Leone was born in Naples in 1908 to Mauro Leone and Maria Gioffredi, both from Pomigliano d'Arco, his father, Mauro Leone, was a prominent lawyer, and had participated in the foundation of the Italian People's Party in Campania.Giovanni Leone, Portale Storico della Presidenza della Repubblica Leone grew up in Pomigliano d'Arco, where he attended the classic lyceum, graduating in 1924.Biografia di Giovanni Leone, Biografie online
In 1929, he graduated in law from the prestigious University of Naples Federico II, with the thesis "Violation of family care obligations", which was even published in 1931.La violazione degli obblighi di assistenza familiare nel nuovo codice penale, Giovanni Leone In the following year, he also obtained a degree in social and political science.Giovanni Leone – Dizionario Biografico, Enciclopedia Treccani During university, Leone became a member of Catholic Action (AC). After graduation, he started working in the law firm of Enrico De Nicola, also becoming a professor of criminal procedure at the University of Camerino.Giovanni Leone, Patrimonio dell'Archivio Storico del Senato della Republica
During the 1930s, he became one of the most prominent lawyers and jurists in Southern Italy, teaching at the Universities of Messina, Bari and Naples. In these years, he was also elected president of the Italian section of the International Association of Penal Law, as well as a member of the executive committee.La biografia del Presidente Leone, Quirinale
During World War II, he became a magistrate of the military court of Naples, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In the aftermath of September 1943 armistice, during the dramatic days of the Nazi occupation, he worked effectively for the release of numerous political prisoners and deserters, thus removing them from possible reprisals. In these years, thanks to a colleague, he met Vittoria Michitto, belonging to one of the best known families of Caserta, whom he married in July 1946.Vittoria Leone, l'incanto di una First Lady, La Discussione The couple had four sons: Mauro, Paolo, Giancarlo and Giulio, who died at the age of 4.
Political career
In 1943, along with his father, Leone was among the founders of the Christian Democracy (DC), the PPI's heir led by Alcide De Gasperi.Alcide De Gasperi, britannica.com After two years, in 1945, he was elected DC's provincial secretary for Naples, immediately becoming one of the leading figures of the party.
In 1946, Leone was among the main supporters of the "neutrality" in the 1946 institutional referendum, in which Italians voted to abolish the monarchy of the House of Savoy. In the same year, he was elected with nearly 32,000 votes to the Constituent Assembly for the constituency of Naples–Caserta.Elezioni del 1946 – Circoscrizione Napoli–Caserta, Ministero dell'Interno As a prominent jurist, he was appointed in the commission with the aim of drawing up the new republican constitution.Intervento del 27 marzo 1947, Giovanni Leone, Il mio contributo alla Costituzione repubblicana, 1985, page 81
In April 1948, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies with 60,000 votes.Elezioni del 1948 – Circoscrizione Napoli–Caserta, Ministero dell'Interno] Even as a deputy, he continued working as a lawyer and teaching at the university, considering for a long time these occupations as priority aspects of his life. Also for this reason, according to some testimonies, he often expressed the desire not to take on government positions.Giovanni Leone, Enciclopedia Treccani Being able to count on his own reliable and territorially rooted electorate, Leone practically never conducted a real party activity. He remained substantially foreign to the large and small factions in which the DC quickly split up, although he could be considered close to the party's conservative wing.
President of the Chamber of Deputies
Thanks to his super partes position, the respect of all DC's internal factions, alongside the undoubted consideration gained also from the other political forces during the works of the Constituent Assembly, in 1950, Leone assumed the position of Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies and then, from May 1955, the one of President, which he held continuously until June 1963.Giovanni Leone – Presidenti della Camera dei Deputati
"As president, he demonstrated, in addition to a strong sense of the institutions and a scrupulous respect for the rules of democratic confrontation, a remarkable ability to govern parliamentary dynamics, also mastered through that undeniable presence of spirit, contributed in making him a well-known figure in the public opinion. At the same time, he was able to gain approval for his action both within the party, which found him a reliable manager of parliamentary processes, and outside DC, among the majority's parties but also in the oppositions, which appreciated his qualities of institutional balance".Morto Giovanni Leone, il presidente del caso Moro, la Repubblica
Prime Minister of Italy First term In the 1963 general election, the Christian Democrats lost almost one million votes, gaining nearly 38%, while the Italian Communist Party (PCI) arrived second with 25%.Elezioni del 1963, Ministero dell'Interno However the Italian Liberal Party (PLI) surged to 7%, their best results ever, receiving many votes from former Christian Democratic supporters, who were against Amintore Fanfani's centre-left policies. With the decline of electoral support, on 22 June 1963, the majority of DC members decided to replace Fanfani with a provisional government led by Leone.I Governo Leone, camera.it
Leone formed a one-party cabinet, composed only by DC's members and externally supported by Italian Socialist Party (PSI), Italian Republican Party (PRI) and Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI).Governo Leone I, governo.itComposizione del Governo Leone I, senato.it The cabinet was also known as "Bridge Government" (Governo ponte),Pathways To Power: Selecting Rulers In Pluralist Democracies as a transitional government, with the aim of starting a tighter cooperation with the PSI.
As prime minister, Leone had to face one of the most tragic events in Italian republican history, the Vajont Dam disaster.Il 9 settembre 1963 il disastro del Vajont: commemorazioni in tutta la regione, Friuli Venezia Giulia On 9 October 1963, a landslide occurred on Monte Toc, in the province of Pordenone. The landslide caused a megatsunami in the artificial lake in which 50 million cubic metres of water overtopped the dam in a wave of , leading to the complete destruction of several villages and towns, and 1,917 deaths. In the previous months, the Adriatic Society of Electricity (SADE) and the Italian government, which both owned the dam, dismissed evidence and concealed reports describing the geological instability of Monte Toc on the southern side of the basin and other early warning signs reported prior to the disaster.La cronaca del disastro e il processo, ANSA
Immediately after the disaster, government and local authorities insisted on attributing the tragedy to an unexpected and unavoidable natural event. However, numerous warnings, signs of danger, and negative appraisals had been disregarded in the previous months and the eventual attempt to safely control the landslide into the lake by lowering its level came when the landslide was almost imminent and was too late to prevent it.La tragedia del Vajont , Rai Scuola The communist newspaper L'Unità was the first to denounce the actions of management and government. Leone accused the PCI of political profiteering from the tragedy, promising to bring justice to the people killed in the disaster. However, a few months after the end of his premiership, he became the head of SADE's team of lawyers, who significantly reduced the amount of compensation for the survivors and ruled out payment for at least 600 victims.
In December 1963, after only five months of government, when the congress of the PSI authorized a full engagement of the party into the government, Leone resigned and Aldo Moro, the secretary of the DC and leader of the more leftist wing of the party, became the new prime minister, ruling Italy for more than four years.I Governo Moro, governo.it
1964 presidential election In August 1964, President Antonio Segni suffered a serious cerebral hemorrhage while he was working at the presidential palace; he only partially recovered and decided to resign. Leone was selected as the DC's official candidate for the presidency, but Fanfani decided to run against him.Scrutini per l'elezione di Giuseppe Saragat a presidente della Repubblica, camera.it However, neither Fanfani nor Leone succeeded in being elected, in fact, during the 1964 presidential election, the social-democratic leader Giuseppe Saragat succeeded in gaining the majority of votes.L'elezione del Presidente Saragat, quirinale.itQuirinale: 1964, via crucis per Leone, ce la fa Saragat, ANSA
In August 1967, Leone was appointed Senator for Life by President Saragat.Senatori a vita, Senato della Repubblica
Second term
In June 1968, after the general election, Saragat appointed Leone at the head of the government. As his first cabinet, also the second one was composed only by DC members and externally supported by PSU and PRI.V Legislatura della Repubblica italiana, Camera dei Deputati
Leone's second premiership lasted only seven months. In December 1968, he resigned and Mariano Rumor became the new prime minister.Governo Rumor I
President (1971–1978)
In 1971, Amintore Fanfani was proposed as Christian Democracy's candidate for the Presidency of the Republic. However his candidacy was weakened by the divisions within his own party and the candidacy of the socialist Francesco De Martino, who received votes from PCI, PSI and some PSDI members.Corsa al Quirinale: l'elezione di Giovanni Leone, Panorama Fanfani retired after several unsuccessful ballots and, on the twenty-second round, Leone was selected as the Christian democratic candidate for the presidency, being slightly preferred to Aldo Moro. On the twenty third round he was finally elected with a centre-right majority, with 518 votes out of 996, including those of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).L'elezione del Presidente Leone, quirinale.it Leone's majority was the narrowest one ever obtained by an elected president and with twenty-three rounds of voting the 1971 presidential election remains the longest presidential election in Italy's republican history.Elezione del Presidente della Repubblica, 1971, Senato della Repubblica
Leone's presidency was considered quite revolutionary for the role held by his wife, Vittoria. Before her, the wife of the Italian presidents had always been on the sidelines, not involved in Italian political life.Ritratti di famiglia al colle, Io Donna However, Vittoria Leone completely changed the role and had been widely regarded as the most prominent first lady of the Italian Republic.La moglie dell'ex presidente Leone: «Io e Melania, la bellezza in politica resta ancora un tabù», Il Mattino