Alessandro Pertini

Alessandro Pertini (born Sept. 25, 1896, Stella San Giovanni, near Savona, Italy—died Feb. 24, 1990, Rome) was a politician and president of Italy (1978–85), distinguished by his statesmanship amid political and social upheaval.

Pertini, trained as a lawyer, served in World War I and became a founding member of Italy’s Socialist Party in 1918. He was imprisoned several times for antifascist activities in the 1920s and ’30s and spent a total of 10 years in jail. After his release in 1943 he was rearrested by the German SS and sentenced to death, but he escaped and joined the antifascist underground. After World War II he was elected to the Constituent Assembly (1946), and in 1953 he entered the Chamber of Deputies, of which he eventually became chairman (1968–76).

In early 1978 former prime minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped and executed by the terrorist Red Brigades, and shortly thereafter President Giovanni Leone resigned amid accusations of corruption and tax evasion. On July 8, after 10 days of arguments and 16 ballots, the Social Democrats and Communists in Parliament compromised on the 81-year-old Pertini as Leone’s successor. Pertini refused on principle to live in the presidential palace, and he worked with people across the political spectrum to restore public faith in government and fight for international human rights.