Segni, Antonio

▪ president of Italy

born Feb. 2, 1891, Sassari, Sardinia

died Dec. 1, 1972, Rome

      Italian statesman, twice premier (1955–57, 1959–60), and fourth president (1962–64) of Italy.

      A lawyer with a degree in agricultural and commercial law, Segni joined the Christian Democratic Party in 1919 (then called Italian Popular Party) and worked as an organizer in the provinces. In 1924 he was a member of the party's national council, but two years later all political organizations were dissolved by Benito Mussolini. Segni taught agrarian law for 17 years at the universities of Pavia, Perugia, and Cagliari; he was also rector of Sassari University.

      At the beginning of 1943 he was one of the organizers of the revived Christian Democratic Party in Sardinia and held ministerial portfolios in almost all the Christian Democratic governments from 1944 onward. Though a principal representative of the right wing of the party and a militant Roman Catholic, he became known as a “white Bolshevik” for his post-World War II introduction of agrarian reform while minister of agriculture (1946–51). His first premiership, as head of a coalition government, lasted almost two years; his second, which included only Christian Democrats, lasted only a year—not unusual in an Italy of shifting governments. After serving as president for two and a half years, he retired in December 1964 because of illness.

* * *