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Giuseppe Saragat (Italian:[dʒuˈzɛppeˈsaːraɡat]ⓘ; 19 September 1898 – 11 June 1988)[2] was an Italian politician and statesman who served as President of Italy from 1964 to 1971.
Saragat was born on 19 September 1898 in Turin, in the region of Piedmont, to Sardinian parents Giovanni Saragat (1855–1938), of Catalan descent, and Ernestina Stratta (1872–1965). He had an older brother, Eugenio "Ennio" (1897–1929), and a younger brother, Pietro (1899–1938). His grandfather's surname was originally Saragattu-Mulinas, but was later shortened.[3]
Graduating in accountancy in 1915, Saragat took part in World War I as an artillery lieutenant of the Royal Italian Army on the Karst Plateau. After the war, he graduated in Economy and Commerce from the University of Turin in 1920, and became employed in banking.[3]
In January 1926, Saragat married Milanese seamstress Giuseppina Bollani (1898–1961), with whom he had two children: Giovanni (1926–2007) and Ernestina "Tina" (b. 1928). Due to political persecution, he fled to Vienna in 1926 (joined by his wife in 1927) and then to France in 1929.[3]
In 1922, Saragat joined the Unitary Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Unitario; PSU) under the influence of Piero Gobetti, and began collaborating with Claudio Treves' journal La Giustizia. He was arrested twice in 1923 and 1924, and after Fascist Italy outlawed the Socialist Party in 1925, Saragat secretly co-founded the Socialist Party of Italian Workers (Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani; PSLI) alongside Treves and Carlo Rosselli.[3]
Following the final dissolution of the PSU in 1930, Saragat joined the Italian Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano, PSI). A reformist, he was a democratic socialist who left the PSI in 1947 out of concern over its then-close alliance with the Italian Communist Party. He subsequently refounded the PSLI, which in 1952 became the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano; PSDI). He was to be the paramount leader of the PSDI for the rest of his life.[4]
In 1944, Saragat had been a minister without portfolio and ambassador in Paris from 1945 to 1946, before he was appointed president of the Constituent Assembly of Italy that same year upon the establishment of the Italian Republic. He was minister of foreign affairs in the Moro I Cabinet and Moro II Cabinet, headed by Christian Democracy leader Aldo Moro from 1963 to late 1964, when he was chosen as President of the Italian Republic. His election demonstrated a rare instance of unity among the Italian left and followed rumours of a possible neo-fascist coup, Piano Solo, during Antonio Segni's presidency.[4][5]
Saragat died in Rome, Lazio, on 11 June 1988. An atheist,[1] he is said to have become a Catholic in his later life, and had a religious funeral.[6]
Media related to Giuseppe Saragat at Wikimedia Commons