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{{Infobox Prime Minister 
| name               = Alcide De Gasperi
| image              = Alcide de Gasperi 2.jpg
| order              = [[List of Prime Ministers of Italy|30th]] [[Prime Minister of Italy]]
| monarch            = [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy|Victor Emmanuel III]]<br>[[Umberto II of Italy|Umberto II]]
| president    	     = [[Enrico De Nicola]] <br> [[Luigi Einaudi]]
| term_start         = 10 December 1945 
| term_end           = 17 August 1953
| predecessor        = [[Ferruccio Parri]]
| successor          = [[Giuseppe Pella]]
| order2             = [[Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start2        = 12 December 1944 
| term_end2          = 18 October 1946
| primeminister2     = [[Ivanoe Bonomi]] <br> [[Ferruccio Parri]] <br> ''Himself''
| predecessor2       = [[Ivanoe Bonomi]]
| successor2         = [[Pietro Nenni]]
| term_start3        = 26 July 1951 
| term_end3          = 17 August 1953
| primeminister3     = ''Himself''
| predecessor3       = [[Carlo Sforza]]
| successor3         = [[Giuseppe Pella]]
| order4             = [[Italian Minister of the Interior|Minister of the Interior]]
| term_start4        = 13 July 1946 
| term_end4          = 2 February 1947
| primeminister4     = ''Himself''
| predecessor4       = [[Giuseppe Romita]]
| successor4         = [[Mario Scelba]]
| order6             = 2nd
| office6            = President of the Common Assembly of the ECSC
| term_start6        = 1 January 1954 
| term_end6          = 19 August 1954
| predecessor6       = [[Paul Henri Spaak]]
| successor6         = [[Giuseppe Pella]]
|birth_name=Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1881|4|3|df=y}}
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1954|8|19|1881|4|3|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Pieve Tesino]], [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_place        = [[Borgo Valsugana]], [[Trentino]], Italy
| spouse             = Francesca Romani
| alma_mater         = [[University of Vienna]]
| children           = Maria Romana De Gasperi <br> ''other 3 daughters''
| nationality        = [[Italians|Italian]]
| party              = [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]]
| religion           = [[Roman Catholic]]
}}

'''Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi''' ({{IPA-it|alˈtʃiːde de ˈɡasperi}}; 3 April 1881 – 19 August 1954) was an [[Italy|Italian]] statesman and politician and founder of the [[Democrazia Cristiana|Christian Democratic Party]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/153503/Alcide-De-Gasperi Alcide De Gasperi (Italian statesman)]. britannica.com</ref> From 1945 to 1953 he was the prime minister of eight successive coalition governments. His eight-year term in office remains a landmark of political longevity for a leader in modern Italian politics.  A conservative Catholic, he was one of the [[Founding fathers of the European Union]], along with the [[France|Frenchman]] [[Robert Schuman]] and the West German Chancellor [[Konrad Adenauer]].

==Early years==
De Gasperi was born in [[Pieve Tesino]] in [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]], which at that time belonged to [[Austria-Hungary]], now part of the [[Trentino]] in Italy. His father was a local police officer of limited financial means. From 1896 De Gasperi was active in the Social Christian movement. In 1900 he joined the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy in [[Vienna]], where he played an important role in the inception of the Christian student movement. He was very much inspired by the [[Rerum Novarum]] [[encyclical]] issued by [[Pope Leo XIII]] in 1891. In 1904 he took an active part in the student demonstrations in favour of an Italian-language university. Imprisoned with other protesters during the inauguration of the Italian juridical faculty in [[Innsbruck]], he was released after twenty days. In 1905, De Gasperi obtained a degree in [[philology]].

In 1905 he began to work as editor of the newspaper ''La Voce Cattolica'' which was replaced in September 1906 by ''Il Trentino'', and after a short time he became its editor. In his newspaper he often took positions in favour of a cultural [[autonomy]] for [[Trentino]] and in defence of Italian culture in Trentino, in contrast to the [[Germanisation]] plans of the German radical nationalists in [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]]. However, he never questioned whether or not Trentino should belong to Austria–Hungary and claimed that, in the case of a referendum, 90% of the Trentino would nevertheless choose the popular Austrian emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria]] over the Italian motherland.

In 1911 he became a Member of Parliament for the Popular Political Union of Trentine ({{lang-it|Unione Politica Popolare del Trentino}} – UPPT) in the [[Austria]]n [[Reichsrat (Austria)|Reichsrat]], a post he held for 6 years. He was politically neutral during World War I, which he spent in [[Vienna]]. However, he sympathized with the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of [[pope Benedict XV]] (1914–1922) and [[beatification|Bl.]] [[Karl I of Austria]] to obtain an honourable peace and stop the war and mass warfare. When his home region was transferred to Italy in the post-war settlement, he accepted Italian citizenship.

==Opposing Fascism==
In 1919 he was among of the founders of the [[Italian People's Party (1919-1926)|Italian People's Party]] ({{lang-it|Partito Popolare Italiano}} – PPI), with Don [[Luigi Sturzo]]. He served as a deputy in the Italian Parliament from 1921 to 1924, a period marked by the rise of [[Italian fascism|Fascism]]. He initially supported the participation of the PPI in [[Benito Mussolini]]’s first government in October 1922.

As Mussolini's hold on the Italian government grew stronger, he soon diverged with the Fascists over constitutional changes to the powers of the executive and to the election system (the [[Acerbo Law]]), and to Fascist violence against the constitutional parties, culminating in the murder of [[Giacomo Matteotti]]. The PPI split, and De Gasperi became secretary of the remaining anti-Fascist group in May 1924. In November 1926, in a climate of overt violence and intimidation by the Fascists, the PPI was dissolved.

De 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 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" ({{lang-it|Idee ricostruttive}}) which amounted to a party programme for the party. He became the first general secretary of the new party in 1944.

De Gasperi was the undisputed head of the Christian Democrats, the party that dominated Parliament for the next decades. Although his control of the DC appeared almost complete, he had to carefully balance of different factions and interests, especially over relations with the Vatican, over social reform, and over foreign policy.

==Prime Minister==
From 1945 to 1953 he was the prime minister of eight successive Christian Democratic governments. His eight-year rule remains a landmark of political longevity for one leader in modern Italian politics. During his successive governments Italy became a Republic (1946), signed a Peace Treaty with the Allies (1947), a member of the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO) in 1949 and an ally of the United States, which helped to revive the Italian economy through the [[Marshall Plan]]. In the same years, Italy also became a member of the [[European Coal and Steel Community]] (ECSC), which eventually transformed into the [[European Union]] (EU).

After the liberation of Rome in June 1944, he 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. He tried to 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.

In June 1946 Italy held the [[Italian constitutional referendum, 1946|Constitutional Referendum]] to decide whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Republicans won with 54% of the vote. Elections were also held at the same time for the [[Constituent Assembly of Italy|Constituent Assembly]]. As chief of the Italian delegation at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1946|World War II peace conference]] in Paris, De Gasperi obtained concessions from the Allies that guaranteed Italian sovereignty. Under the [[Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947]], the eastern border area was lost to [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] and the free territory of [[Trieste]] was divided between the two states.

One his most striking achievements in foreign policy was the [[Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement]] with Austria in September 1946 that established his home region, southern Tirol, as an autonomous region.

==Social security reform==
{{main|Social security reforms under Alcide De Gasperi}}
In domestic policy, a number of social security reforms were carried out by various ministers of De Gaspari's cabinets in the areas of rents and popular housing, unemployment insurances and pensions.

==American support==
De Gasperi enjoyed considerable support in the US, where he was seen as the man who could oppose the rising tide of Communism – in particular the PCI, which was the biggest communist party in a Western European democracy. In January 1947 he visited the US. The chief goals of the trip were to soften the terms of the pending peace treaty with Italy, and to obtain immediate economic assistance. His ten-day tour, engineered by media mogul [[Henry Luce]] – the owner of [[Time Magazine]] – and his wife [[Clare Boothe Luce]] the future ambassador to Rome, was viewed as a media "triumph," prompting positive comments of a wide section of the American press.<ref name=white>[http://www.arts.mun.ca/congrips/newsletter/61%20-%20Fall%202005.pdf De Gasperi through American Eyes: Media and Public Opinion, 1945–53], by Steven F. White, in: Italian Politics and Society, No.61 Fall/Winter 2005</ref>

During his meetings in the US, he managed to secure a financially modest but politically significant US$100&nbsp;million Eximbank loan to Italy. According to De Gasperi, public opinion would view the loan as a vote of confidence in the Italian Government and strengthen his position versus the Communist Party in the context of the emerging Cold War. The positive results strengthened De Gasperi’s reputation in Italy. He also came back with useful information on the incipient change in American foreign policy that would lead to the Cold War and in Italy the break with the Communists and left-wing Socialists and their removal from the government in the [[May 1947 crisis]].<ref>[http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=ies The Italian Stabilization of 1947: Domestic and International Factors], by Juan Carlos Martinez Oliva, Institute of European Studies, 2007</ref>

==1948 elections==
{{main|Italian general election, 1948}}
The [[Italian general election, 1948|general elections in April 1948]] were heavily influenced by the cold-war confrontation between the [[Soviet Union]] and the United States. After the Soviet-inspired February 1948 communist coup in [[Czechoslovakia]], the US became alarmed about Soviet intentions and feared that, if the leftist coalition were to win the elections, the Soviet-funded [[Italian Communist Party]] (PCI) would draw Italy into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence.

The election campaign remains unmatched in verbal aggression and fanaticism in Italy's history on both sides. The Catholic Church in Italy worked hard to encourage people to vote against communist candidates. The Christian Democratic propaganda became famous in claiming that in Communist countries "children sent parents to jail", "children were owned by the state", "people ate their own children", and claiming disaster would strike Italy if the left were to take power.<ref name=tim120448>[http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,779791,00.html Show of Force], Time Magazine, 12 April 1948</ref><ref name=tim190448>[http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798374,00.html How to Hang On], Time Magazine, 19 April 1948</ref> 

In the US a campaign was launched to prevent a victory of the Communist dominated [[Popular Democratic Front (Italy)|Popular Democratic Front]] (FDP – {{lang-it|Fronte Democratico Popolare}}). Italian-Americans were encouraged to write letters to their relatives in Italy. The popular Italian-American singer [[Frank Sinatra]] made a [[Voice of America]] radio broadcast. The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) funneled "black bag" contributions to anti-communist candidates with the approval of the [[National Security Council]] and President [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]]. [[Joseph P. Kennedy]] and Claire Booth Luce helped to raise US$2&nbsp;million for the Christian Democrat Party.<ref>[http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch24cld.html  The Cold War Begins], Frank Eugene Smitha</ref> Time Magazine backed the campaign and featured De Gasperi on its 19 April 1948 issue’s cover and in its lead story.<ref name=tim190448/> (He would appear on a Time cover again on 25 May 1953, during the campaign for that year's election, with an extensive biography.<ref name=time250553>[http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/printout/0,8816,890557,00.html Man from the Mountains], Time Magazine, 25 May 1953</ref>)

The Christian Democrats won a resounding victory with 48.5 percent of the vote (their best result ever) and strong majorities in both the Chamber of Deputies and Senate. The communists received only half of the votes they had in 1946.   Although De Gasperi could have formed an exclusively DC government, he opted instead to form a new centrist coalition.  He ruled for five more years, helming four additional coalitions. "De Gasperi’s policy is patience," according to the foreign news correspondent for the [[New York Times]], [[Anne O'Hare McCormick|Anne McCormick]]. "He seems to be feeling his way among the explosive problems he has to deal with, but perhaps this wary mine-detecting method is the stabilizing force that holds the country in balance."<ref>New York Times, 16 February 1949, quoted in [http://www.arts.mun.ca/congrips/newsletter/61%20-%20Fall%202005.pdf De Gasperi through American Eyes: Media and Public Opinion, 1945–53], by Steven F. White, in: Italian Politics and Society, No.61 Fall/Winter 2005</ref>

==Death and legacy==
In 1952, the party overwhelmingly endorsed his authority over the government and over the party. However, it was also the start of his decline. He came under increasing criticism from the emerging left wing in the party. Their main accusations were that he was too cautious in social and economic reform, that he stifled debate, and that he subordinated the party to the interests of government.

When the Christian Democrats did not gain a majority in the [[Italian general election, 1953|elections of 1953]], De Gasperi was unable to establish a workable government and was forced to resign as Prime Minister.<ref name=time270653>[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,936090,00.html Cabinet Maker], Time, 27 July 1953</ref><ref name=time100853>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,818642,00.html De Gasperi's Fall], Time, 10 August 1953</ref> The following year he also had to give up the leadership of the party.

Two months later, on 19 August 1954, he died in [[Sella di Valsugana]], in his beloved Trentino. He is buried in the [[Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura]], a basilica in Rome. The process for his [[beatification]] was opened in 1993.<ref>{{it icon}} [http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/92035 Servo di Dio Alcide De Gasperi], Santi beati</ref>

"De Gasperi was against exacerbating conflict," according to his former secretary and former Prime Minister [[Giulio Andreotti]]. "He taught us to search for compromise, to mediate."<ref name=ind240995>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_/ai_n14008143 All the prime minister's men], by [[Alexander Stille]], The Independent, 24 September 1995</ref>

He is considered to be one of the [[Founding fathers of the European Union]]. From the very beginning of European integration, De Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer met regularly.<ref>[http://www.epp-ed.eu/Activities/docs/cd-rom/degasperi-en.pdf Alcide De Gasperi's humanist and European message],  European People's Party</ref> He helped organize the [[Council of Europe]] and supported to the [[Schumann Plan]], which in 1951 led to the foundation of the [[European Coal and Steel Community]] (ECSC) – a forerunner in the process of European integration. He was named president of the Community in 1954, and although the project eventually failed, De Gasperi 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, 4 October 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. The 1954–1955 academic year at the [[College of Europe]] was named in his honour.

==See also==
* [[Alcide de Gasperi Building]]

==References==
===Notes===
{{reflist|30em}}
* [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/printout/0,8816,890557,00.html Man from the Mountains], biography in Time Magazine, 25 May 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

==Further reading==
* Bigaran, Mariapia. "Alcide De Gasperi: the apprenticeship of a political leader," ''Modern Italy'' Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 415–30
* Carrillo, Elisa. ''Alcide De Gasperi: The Long Apprenticeship.'' University of Notre Dame Press, 1965.
* Cau, Maurizio. "Alcide De Gasperi: a political thinker or a thinking politician?" ''Modern Italy'' Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 431–45
* Duggan, Christopher. ''  Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796'' (2008) ch 27–28
* Lorenzini, Sara. "The roots of a 'statesman': De Gasperi's foreign policy," ''Modern Italy'' Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 473–84
* Pombeni, Paolo, and Giuliana Nobili Schiera. "Alcide de Gasperi: 1881-1954-a political life in a troubled century," ''Modern Italy'' Nov2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 379–401

===In Italian===
* {{it icon}} Pietro Scoppola, ''La proposta politica di De Gasperi'', Bologna, Il Mulino, 1977.
* {{it icon}} [[Giulio Andreotti]], ''Intervista su De Gasperi''; a cura di Antonio Gambino, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1977.
* {{it icon}} [[Giulio Andreotti]], ''De Gasperi visto da vicino'', Milano, Rizzoli, 1986.
* {{it icon}} [[Nico Perrone]], ''De Gasperi e l'America'', Palermo, Sellerio, 1995.
* {{it icon}} ''Alcide De Gasperi: un percorso europeo'', a cura di Eckart Conze, Gustavo Corni, Paolo Pombeni, Bologna, Il mulino, 2004.
* {{it icon}} Piero Craveri, ''De Gasperi'', Bologna, Il Mulino, 2006

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Alcide De Gasperi}}
* [http://www.fondazionedegasperi.it/Inglese/default.asp Alcide De Gasperi Foundation]
* [http://www.iue.it/ECArchives/EN/ADG.shtml Alcide De Gasperi Archives], Historical Archives of the European Union,  European University Institute
* {{it icon}} [http://www.centrostudimalfatti.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=11&Itemid=12 De Gasperi: un politico europeo venuto dal futuro], Centro Studi Malfatti

<gallery>
File:Alcide De Gasperi burial in San Lorenzo.jpg|Alcide De Gasperi burial in [[San Lorenzo fuori le Mura|San Lorenzo Basilica, Rome]]
</gallery>

{{s-start}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs]]|years=1944–1946}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pietro Nenni]]}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Italy|President of the Council of Ministers of Italy]]|years=1945–1953}}
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{{s-end}}

{{Prime ministers of Italy}}
{{Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs}}
{{Italian Ministers of the Interior}}
{{Secretaries of the Italian Christian Democracy}}
{{National Liberation Committee}}
{{EuroparlPres}}
{{Charlemagne Prize recipients}}

{{Authority control|VIAF=32011324}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME              = De Gasperi, Alcide
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = 
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Italian politician
| DATE OF BIRTH     = 3 April 1881
| PLACE OF BIRTH    = [[Pieve Tesino]], [[County of Tyrol]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| DATE OF DEATH     = 19 August 1954
| PLACE OF DEATH    = [[Borgo Valsugana]], [[Trentino]], Italy
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Gasperi, Alcide}}
[[Category:1881 births]]
[[Category:1954 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Trentino]]
[[Category:Italian Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Italian People's Party (1919) politicians]]
[[Category:Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians]]
[[Category:Prime Ministers of Italy]]
[[Category:Foreign ministers of Italy]]
[[Category:Italian Ministers of the Interior]]
[[Category:Members of the Imperial Council (Austria)]]
[[Category:Members of the Constituent Assembly of Italy]]
[[Category:Members of the Italian Chamber of Deputies]]
[[Category:Presidents of the European Parliament]]
[[Category:Austro-Hungarian politicians]]
[[Category:Austro-Hungarian journalists]]
[[Category:Italian Austro-Hungarians]]
[[Category:Italian diplomats]]
[[Category:Italian journalists]]
[[Category:Italian philologists]]
[[Category:Cold War leaders]]
[[Category:Italian anti-communists]]
[[Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Burials at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura]]
[[Category:Servants of God]]
[[Category:20th-century venerated Christians]]