Amintore Fanfani (6 February 1908 – 20 November 1999) was Prime Minister of Italy from 18 January to 10 February 1954 (succeeding Giuseppe Pella and preceding Mario Scelba), from 1 July 1958 to 15 February 1959 (succeeding Adole Zoli and preceding Antonio Segni), from 26 July 1960 to 21 June 1963 (succeeding Fernando Tambroni and preceding Giovanni Leone), from 1 December 1982 to 4 August 1983 (succeeding Giovanni Spadolini and preceding Bettino Craxi), and from 17 April to 28 July 1987 (succeeding Craxi and preceding Giovanni Goria). He was a member of the Christian Democracy party.
Biography[]
Amintore Fanfani was born in Pieve Santo Stefano, Tuscany in 1908, and he worked as a professor in economic history at the Catholic University of Milan after 1936. He joined the Christian Democracy party in 1943 (having previously been a National Fascist Party member) out of his commitment to social reform, and he became a member of the Constituent Assembly. He served as Minister of Labor from 1947 to 1950, of Agriculture from 1951 to 1953, and of the Interior from 1953 to 1954. As Party Secretary of the DC from 1954 to 1959 and 1973 to 1975, he was responsible for a considerable improvement in party organization and party membership. As Prime Minister he steered his party to the left and was responsible for the co-operation with the Italian Socialist Party, which formed the basis of the DC governments from 1963 to 1974. His influence within the party dwindled thereafter, so that he was unable to prevent the DC accepting the help of the Italian Communist Party in government under Giulio Andreotti in 1976. His last two periods as Prime Minister were brief, as he was chosen because of his seniority to head a pre-election caretaker government. He joined the Senate in 1968 and became its president in 1976. Fanfani died in 1999.