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{{Infobox Prime Minister 
| name              =  Alcide De Gasperi
| image             = De_Gasperi.JPG
| order           = Interim <br> [[President of the Italian Republic]]
| term_start	= [[June 12]], [[1946]]
| term_end	= [[July 1]], [[1946]]
| predecessor	= King [[Umberto II of Italy|Umberto II]]
| successor          = [[Enrico De Nicola]] 
(contracted; show full)

In 1911 he became a [[Member of Parliament]] for the Popular Political Union of Trentine ([[Italian Language|Italian]]: ''Unione Politica Popolare del Trentino'' - UPPT) in the [[Austria]]n [[Reichsrat (Austria)|Reichsrat]], a post he held for 6 years. He was neutral during 
the [[First [[World War I]], which he spent in Vienna. When his home region was transferred to Italy in the post-war settlement, he took Italian citizenship. 

===Opposing Fascism===
(contracted; show full) Gasperi was arrested in March 1927 and sentenced to four years in prison. The [[Holy See|Vatican]] negotiated his release. A year and a half in prison nearly broke De Gasperi's health. After his release in July 1928, he was unemployed and in serious financial hardship, until in 1929 his ecclesiastical contacts secured him a job as a cataloguer in the Vatican Library, where he spent the next fourteen years until the collapse of Fascism in July 1943.

===Founding the Christian Democrat Party===
During 
the [[Second [[World War II]], he organized the establishment of the first (and at the time, illegal) Christian Democracy party, or ''[[Democrazia Cristiana]]'', drawing upon the ideology of the Popular Party. In January 1943, he published "Ideas for reconstruction" ([[Italian Language|Italian]]: ''Idee ricostruttive'') which amounted to a party programme for the party. He became the first general secretary of the new party in 1944.

(contracted; show full)

After the liberation of Italy in June 1944, he had served as minister without portfolio and then as foreign minister. In December 1945, he became Prime Minister for the first time, leading a coalition government that included the [[Italian Communist Party]] (PCI) and [[Italian Socialist 
  Party]] (PSI). Communist party leader [[Palmiro Togliatti]] acted as vice-premier. In May 1947, De Gasperi excluded the Communists and left-wing Socialists from the government, after a trip to the US in January that year. He tried soften the terms of the pending Allied peace
treaty with Italy and secured financial and economic aid through the [[European Recovery Program]] (Marshal Plan) – which was opposed by the Communists.

(contracted; show full)ally failed, De Gaspari helped develop the idea of the common [[European Defense Community|European defence policy]].<ref>[http://www.theflorentine.net/articles/article-view.asp?issuetocId=2497 In the beginning was De Gasperi], The Florentine, October 4, 2007</ref> In 1952 he received the [[Karlspreis]] (International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen), an award by the German city of [[Aachen]] to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace.

==References==
{{reflist}}

⏎
⏎
* [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/printout/0,8816,890557,00.html Man from the Mountains], biography in Time Magazine, May 25, 1953
* [http://www.fondazionedegasperi.it/Inglese/page.asp?IDCategoria=782&IDSezione=4837&ID=94726 Alcide De Gasperi and his age: A chronology of the Statesman's life and works], Alcide De Gasperi Foundation
* [http://www.degasperi.net/index.php Alcide De Gasperi (1881-1954)] by Pier Luigi Ballini,  Alcide De Gasperi in the history of Europe

==See also==
(contracted; show full)[[ru:Гаспери, Альчиде де]]
[[sl:Alcide De Gasperi]]
[[fi:Alcide De Gasperi]]
[[sv:Alcide De Gasperi]]
[[tg:Алкиде Де Гаспери]]
[[tr:Alcide De Gasperi]]
[[uk:Де Гаспері Альчіде]]
[[vec:Alcide De Gasperi]]