Pietro Mitolo

Pietro Mitolo (born April 27, 1921 in Bolzano ; † February 24, 2010 in Brescia ) was an Italian regional politician in South Tyrol . Together with his older brother Andrea Mitolo , he was the central figure of integration of the neo-fascist party Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) in Bolzano from 1946 , from 1995 regional top representative of the successor party Alleanza Nazionale and from 2008 exponent of the center-right party Popolo della Libertà (PDL) .

Professional and political career

Political Socialization in Fascist Italy (1922–1945)

Mitolo completed his school education in the 1930s at the grammar school in Bozen, together with the later governor of South Tyrol and long-time chairman of the South Tyrolean People's Party , Silvius Magnago . Mitolo then began studying engineering at the University of Padua , which he completed in 1947.

During the Second World War Mitolo was stationed as a pilot in the Italian Army in Perugia and at times completed training with the German Air Force in Bavaria, where he acquired extensive knowledge of German. After the fall of fascism and the occupation of northern Italy by the German Reich in 1943, Mitolo fought as a volunteer in Mussolini's Repubblica Sociale until the end of the war .

Leader of neo and post fascism in South Tyrol (1945–2010)

After the end of the war, Mitolo was represented several times for the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) and its successor parties in various public bodies since the first municipal council elections in 1948 . Mitolo's career began in the municipal council of Bolzano, to which he belonged for many years, later Mitolo became a member of the South Tyrolean state parliament and thus at the same time to the regional council of Trentino-South Tyrol (1973–1989; 1993–1994). From 1992 to 1994 Mitolo was a member of the European Parliament for a short time , and from 1994 to 2001 he was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies .

As the top representative of the MSI, Mitolo defended the Italianization policy that the fascist regime had practiced in South Tyrol in the 1920s, and he was expressly opposed to the autonomy solution for South Tyrol in the form of the Gruber-De-Gasperi Agreement . Mitolo's unconciliatory attitude towards the political representatives of the German- and Ladin-speaking South Tyroleans contributed significantly to the radicalization of the political climate in South Tyrol over the entire second half of the 20th century.

As co-coordinator of the PDL in Trentino-Alto Adige , Mitolo tried in the last years of his life to break down the reservations that had grown in the ranks of the South Tyrolean People's Party towards the Italian center-right camp after years of political exclusion . The intended involvement of his political foster son Giorgio Holzmann in the regional affairs of government did not materialize during Mitolo's lifetime.

literature

• Joachim Gatterer: From the ruins of the war to democracy. On the political career of Alfons Benedikter, Pietro Mitolo and Egmont Jenny , in: Pallaver, Günther (Ed.): Politika 11th Yearbook for Politics / Annuario di politica / Anuer de pulitica, Edition Raetia, Bozen 2011, pp. 325–338. ISBN 978-88-7283-388-9 .
• South Tyrolean provincial government (publisher): Südtirol-Handbuch 2001 . Brochure, Bozen 2001, p. 153 ( online )

Web links

• Entry on Pietro Mitolo in the Members' database of the European Parliament
• Entry on Pietro Mitolo in the parliamentary database of the South Tyrolean Parliament (PDF)
• Pietro Mitolo in the Portale Storico of the Camera dei deputati