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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2013}}
{{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]]
| 1blankname1        = Luogotenente
| 1namedata1         = [[Umberto II of Italy|Prince Umberto]]
(contracted; show full)
| occupation         = Journalist, politician
| alma_mater         = [[University of Vienna]]
| religion           = [[Roman Catholicism]]
}}
{{Christian democracy sidebar}}
'''Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi''' ({{IPA-it|alˈtʃiːde de ˈɡasperi}}; 3 April 1881 – 19 August 1954) was an [[Italy|Italian]] statesman and politician 
andwho founder ofd the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]] 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 (contracted; show full)

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 [[
pPope 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==
(contracted; show full)

==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 
rReconstruction" ({{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 [[Italian constitutional referendum, 1946|became a Republic]] (1946), signed a [[Paris Peace Treaties, 1947|Peace Treaty with the Allies]] (1947), a member ofjoined 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 fForeign mMinister. 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.

(contracted; show full)re 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 
[[Export-Import Bank of the United States|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 go(contracted; show full)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 cCommunists 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 (contracted; show full)[[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]]