Bruno Villabruna
Bruno Villabruna was an Italian lawyer and liberal politician. Born in 1884 in Biella, near Turin, he was first elected to parliament in 1921. After the rise to power of the fascists, he joined, unlike many other liberals, the democratic opposition around old leader Giovanni Giolitti and in 1924 refused to candidate himself in the fascist-led national union list. Dissolved all political parties in early 1925, he retired from political life and went on being a lawyer.
In July 1943, overthrown the Mussolini regime, he was appointed mayor of Turin, but had to resign after 45 days because of the German occupation. Liberated Northern Italy in 1945 he became a member of the Consulta Nazionale and in 1946 was elected to the Assemblea Costituente. He failed being elected to the first parliament of the Italian Republic in 1948, but few month later he was chosen as Secretary General of the Italian Liberal Party (PLI), after the deep crisis of the party had forced right-wing leader Roberto Lucifero to resign. Villabruna tried to convince the left-wing dissident group Movimento Liberale Indipendente (MLI) led by Count Nicolò Carandini to return into the ranks of PLI, which they had left in early 1948, but only in late 1951 this operation came to a conclusion.
In 1954 Villabruna became Minister of Industry and Trade in the Scelba government, and let the leadership of the Liberal Party go to Giovanni Malagodi, with whom he came to serious quarrels few time later. In 1955 he left the PLI and was among the founders of the Radical Party. From 1960 to 1962 he was Segcretary General of this party, retiring definitely to privete life after its dissolution.
Villabruna died in 1971.
Literature
- Blasberg, Christian, Die Liberale Linke und das Schicksal der Dritten Kraft im italienischen Zentrismus, 1947-1951. Frankfurt/Main 2008.