Mario Tanassi (17 March 1916 – 5 May 2007) was an Italian politician, who was several times Minister of the Italian Republic. In 1979 he was condemned by the

Constitutional Court of Italy The Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic () is the highest court of Italy in matters of constitutional law. Sometimes, the name ''Consulta'' is used as a metonym for it, because its sessions are held in Palazzo della Consulta in Rome. ...

for his involvement in the Lockheed bribery scandal.

Biography

Tanassi was born at Ururi, in the

province of Campobasso The province of Campobasso (; ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Molise region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Campobasso. It covers an area of and has a total population of 223,871 (2017). There are 84 ''comuni'' (: ''comune'') in ...

. He joined the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (''Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano''; PSDI) and was later national co-secretary, alongside Francesco De Martino, of the unified PSI-PSDI, a short-lived reunion of the PSDI and the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...

. In 1963 he became a deputy in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

, a position he would hold until 1979. He was minister of defence for the first time in the Rumor II Cabinet (1970), formed by an alliance between

Christian Democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

(DC), PSI and PSDI. In 1972 he was again appointed as minister of defence, as well as vice-prime minister, in the Andreotti II Cabinet (in which the Italian Liberal Party had replaced the Socialists). Tanassi was minister of defence for the third time in the fourth Rumor Government (DC-PSI-PSDI- PRI). After a short tenure in 1972, in June 1975 he again became national secretary of the PSDI, replacing Flavio Orlandi. Soon afterwards, he was involved in the Lockheed bribery scandal together with Mariano Rumor and Luigi Gui, causing him to lose his position as the party's secretary. In 1979 the Constitutional Court of Italy found him guilty of bribery and he spent four months in jail. He was the first Italian former minister to serve a prison sentence and the first politician convicted before the nationwide

Clean Hands Clean hands, sometimes called the clean hands doctrine, unclean hands doctrine, or dirty hands doctrine, is an equitable defense in which the defendant argues that the plaintiff is not entitled to obtain an equitable remedy because the plainti ...

corruption scandals in the 1990s.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanassi, Mario 1916 births 2007 deaths People from the Province of Campobasso Italian Democratic Socialist Party politicians Government ministers of Italy Ministers of finance of Italy Ministers of defence of Italy Deputy prime ministers of Italy