Giuliano Amato

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Giuliano Amato (2007)
Signature of Giuliano Amato

Giuliano Amato (born May 13, 1938 in Turin ) is an Italian politician . He was Italian Prime Minister from 1992 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2001 . In the second Prodi government , he was Minister of the Interior (2006 to 2008). Since 2013 he has been a judge at the Italian Constitutional Court .

Education and early political career

Amato studied law at the University of Pisa and the Law School of Columbia University . In addition to his studies at the University of Pisa, which he completed with the constitutional lawyer Carlo Lavagna , Amato was a student of the then Collegio Medico-Giuridico (now Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna ). He then pursued a further academic career and was from 1975 professor of constitutional law at the University of La Sapienza in Rome.

Amato had already joined the Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI) in 1958 . He took on various political and social tasks early on, including a. as head of the legal department in the Ministry of Finance (late 1960s) and in various government commissions in the late 1970s. He also briefly advised the EU Commission .

From 1983 to 1994 Amato represented the socialists in the Chamber of Deputies . Between 1983 and 1987 he was Undersecretary of State to Prime Minister Bettino Craxi , then Minister of the Treasury from 1987 to 1989, and also Deputy Prime Minister until 1988. In 1989 he became Deputy General Secretary of the Socialist Party.

First term as Prime Minister

From June 1992 to April 1993 Giuliano Amato was Italian Prime Minister (1992 also acting Foreign Minister for a few days). Government work was difficult from the start. Amato pursued a rigid austerity policy, raised the retirement age and taxes, and pushed ahead with the privatization of state-owned companies. The Washington Post quoted him in 1992 as saying:

"My government is one of necessity, not popularity. I am trying to tell people that things can no longer be the same-that, in effect, it is time for Italians to enter the human race. We had reached the edge of the cliff, and it was time to step back. People have to realize that. I keep saying we can't live in a vacuum. France, Denmark, even Britain have carried out reforms in the past decade, while we just built up debt to the point that it is more than 100 percent of our gross national product. "

During this time, the involvement of a large part of the Italian political class, in particular the Democrazia Cristiana and the socialists, in cases of corruption was exposed. While Amato's personal integrity has never been questioned, numerous investigations have been directed against members of his government.

In April 1993, President Scalfaro therefore appointed Central Bank Chairman Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as the new Prime Minister. The PSI disbanded in 1994, after which Amato was non-party.

President of the Cartel Office, Minister

Giuliano Amato then took over the management of the Italian Cartel Office from 1994 to 1997 and various ministerial offices in the government of Massimo D'Alema from 1998 to 2000, including a. for institutional reforms and, for the second time, the Treasury. However , he was denied higher orders such as the state presidency or the chairmanship of the International Monetary Fund , even if hardly anyone denied his suitability for these positions.

Second term as Prime Minister

In April 2000 Massimo D'Alema resigned due to defeat in regional elections and Giuliano Amato took over again the post of Prime Minister. Even if the division of his 12-party coalition blocked a lot, the balance sheet at the end of his term of office was quite good: growth of 2.8%, moderate inflation and new debt of only 1.5% of GDP (which makes the Stability Pact clear was observed).

Amato had already announced in September 2000 that it would no longer stand for election in the parliamentary elections in May next year; In 2001 he took over the Foreign Ministry again for the last few days after the election. The left olive alliance chose Francesco Rutelli as the top candidate, but lost the elections to Silvio Berlusconi .

Since 2001

In the 2001 election , Amato was elected to the Senate as a representative of the L'Ulivo alliance , and in the following years tried to found a moderate reform party.

In addition, from 2002 he was Vice-President of the European Convention , which drafted the European Constitution . After the failure of the European Constitution as a result of the referendums in France and the Netherlands , he headed the so-called Amato Group. This informal group of European politicians worked on a proposal that adopted the essential elements of the Constitutional Treaty and formed the basis of the Lisbon Treaty . In 2002 he was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

In the 2006 parliamentary election , Amato was elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the L'Ulivo list. From May 2006 to May 2008 he was Italian Interior Minister in Romano Prodi's cabinet . From May 2007 he was a member of the national committee of the Partito Democratico (PD), which was being founded at the time . Several parties from the center-left were absorbed in this. In November 2011 he was traded as a possible foreign minister in the Monti government , who instead opted for Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata .

On February 21, 2012, Giuliano Amato became President of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa . On September 12, 2013, President Giorgio Napolitano appointed Amato as judge of the Constitutional Court .

Web links

Commons : Giuliano Amato  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Giuliano Amato  - Quotes (Italian)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La squadra di Monti, Moavero succede a Letta? ANSA , November 14, 2011, accessed November 15, 2011 (Italian).
personal data
SURNAME Amato, Giuliano
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian politician, member of the camera, member of the Senato della Repubblica
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Turin