Guido Gonella

Guido Gonella

Guido Gonella (born September 18, 1905 in Verona , province of Verona , † August 19, 1982 in Nettuno , province of Rome ) was an Italian lawyer , journalist , university professor and politician of the Democrazia Cristiana (DC), who was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ( Camera dei deputati ) and the Senate ( Senato della Repubblica ) as well as several times Minister of Justice of Italy .

Life

Degree and journalist

After attending school, Gonella studied philosophy with a focus on legal philosophy at the University of Bari and the University of Pavia and worked as a journalist after graduating.

He first became editor-in-chief of Azione fucini , the newspaper of the Catholic student association Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana (FUCI) in 1928 , before he became editor of L'Osservatore Romano , the daily newspaper of the Holy See in the 1930s . His acquaintance with Giovanni Montini, later Pope Paul VI , also dates from this time . who was part-time general assistant of the FUCI between 1925 and 1933. Gonella also held a professorship in legal philosophy at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome . Later taught at the Universities of Bari and Pavia.

In the following years he developed into an opponent of the totalitarian fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and was arrested for this attitude in 1939, but released again due to the intervention of the Holy See. During the Second World War he was a journalist for Il Popolo , the newspaper of the Democrazia Cristiana, and after the end of the war in 1946 became its editor-in-chief. In 1943 he was also one of the authors of the Codice di Camaldoli , a draft program of the DC for a political and economic system in post-war Italy .

Minister and MP

After the end of the Second World War, Gonella first became a member of the National Council ( Consulta Nazionale ) on April 5, 1945 and was then a member of the Constituent Assembly ( Assemblea Costituente della Repubblica Italiana ) from June 25, 1946 to April 26, 1948 .

On May 31, 1947, Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi appointed him Minister for Public Education ( Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione ) in his fourth government and held this post in the subsequent De Gasperi governments until July 16, 1953.

On April 24, 1948 he was elected for the first time to the Chamber of Deputies ( Camera dei deputati ) and represented the interests of the constituency of Verona as a member of the DC until May 25, 1972 . At the same time he was from April 1950 to September 1953 Political Secretary of the Democrazia Cristiana and thus de facto chairman of the party.

On July 16, 1953, De Gasperi appointed him Minister of Justice ( Ministro della Giustizia ) in the eighth cabinet, to which he belonged until August 17, 1953.

In the government of Prime Minister Antonio Segni he held the post of minister without portfolio ( Ministro senza Portofoglio ) from July 6, 1955 to May 19, 1957 , but as such was entrusted with the reform of the administration and the implementation of the constitution.

In the subsequent government of Adone Zoli , he was again Minister of Justice on May 19, 1957. He then held the office of Minister of Justice in the governments of Prime Ministers Amintore Fanfani , Antonio Segni and Fernando Tambroni until the end of the third Fanfani cabinet on February 21, 1962.

During the fourth legislative term , from April 1966 to June 1968, he was one of the vice-presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and also vice-chairman of the committee for the control of libraries.

He then became Minister of Justice in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Giovanni Leone on June 24, 1968, and held this position until December 12, 1968. From January 1969 to May 1972 he was chairman of the Chamber of Deputies' electoral committee and was then from February 17 Minister of Justice for the fourth time until July 5, 1973, in the first and second cabinet of Giulio Andreotti .

Senator and MEP

After leaving the Chamber of Deputies, he became a member of the Senate ( Senato della Repubblica ) on May 25, 1972 and was a member of it until his death on August 19, 1982.

Between May 1979 and his death he was also a member of the first European Parliament .

Web links

• Entry on Guido Gonella in the Members' database of the European Parliament
• Entry (1st legislative period) on the homepage of the Camera dei deputati
• Entry (second legislative period) on the homepage of the Camera dei deputati
• Entry (3rd legislative period) on the homepage of the Camera dei deputati
• Entry (4th legislative period) on the homepage of the Camera dei deputati
• Entry (5th legislative period) on the homepage of the Camera dei deputati
• Entry (sixth legislative period) on the Senato della Repubblica homepage
• Entry (7th legislative period) on the Senato della Repubblica homepage
• Entry (8th legislative period) on the Senato della Repubblica homepage