Figa declaring the Perugine Republic, February 1872
Pietro Figa (27 October 1833-14 July 1879) was an Italian reactionary politician and the President of the short-lived Perugine Republic from 3 February to 17 March 1872.
Biography[]
Pietro Figa was born in Perugia, Papal States on 27 October 1833 to a family of upper-class Catholics. Figa became a nationalist poet and a Catholic activist during his youth, and he opposed Sardinia-Piedmont's war against the Papal States. "Faith," he argued, "Should dictate the powers of the Pope, not foreign armies." While he was a republican, Figa was known for his very conservative views, enndearing him to the conservative government of the early French Third Republic. On 3 February 1872, he became President of the Perugine Republic, a French puppet state that was established in the former Papal States. Figa became a dictator, and his Perugine Restorationists were the only legal faction in politics. Figa was unable to change society much, apart from creating a one-party state, before Italy declared war on the nascent republic. Figa was forced to flee to the port city of Ancona and, from there, to Dubrovnik in Croatia, as the Italian army crushed the revolution back home. Figa lived in Zagreb until his 1879 death from tuberculosis.