Fabrizio Cicchitto (born 26 October 1940) is an Italian politician, whose career has followed a trajectory from radical socialism to centre-right reformism.

Biography

Fabrizio Cicchitto entered politics in the early 1960s, supporting the Riccardo Lombardi-led Marxist left-wing of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...

(PSI) and then becoming

secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a ...

of the party's

youth organization The following is a list of youth organizations. A youth organization is a type of organization with a focus upon providing activities and socialization for minors. In this list, most organizations are international unless noted otherwise. ...

(''Federazione Giovanile Socialista Italiana''; Italian Young Socialist Federation). Cicchitto also became sympathetic to

Eurocommunism Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rel ...

and the Historic Compromise path taken by the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

(PCI), while being highly critical of Christian Democracy (DC) itself, as well as of the American CIA and the Italian

Servizio Informazioni Difesa Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...

. According to him, DC would have exploited the

Red Brigades The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...

' activities and the

Aldo Moro Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy (DC). He served as prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July 1 ...

case to cut off relations with the PCI. In 1981, he confessed to being a member of the masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2). Shortly after this move, Cicchitto was excluded from the Socialist Party. Readmitted toward the end of the 1980s, he followed the policies of

Bettino Craxi Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( , , ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th prime minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first PSI membe ...

and held minor posts throughout the ''

Mani pulite ''Mani pulite'' (; Italian language, Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the so-called "History of the Italian Republic#First ...

''-''

Tangentopoli ''Mani pulite'' (; Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the so-called " First Republic" and the disappearance of many Italia ...

'' scandals that saw the disestablishment of most Italian political parties. Cicchitto joined

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...

's centre-right party Forza Italia (FI), leading its social-democratic wing We Blue Reformers. He had been a Socialist member of either the

Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( it, Camera dei deputati) is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Senate of the Republic). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical funct ...

or the Italian Senate for three successive terms. He is currently the vice-president of Forza Italia's group in the chamber, and national deputy-coordinator of the party from 2003. He has contributed to steps taken by Italy in its adoption of the

European Monetary System The European Monetary System (EMS) was a multilateral adjustable exchange rate agreement in which most of the nations of the European Economic Community (EEC) linked their currencies to prevent large fluctuations in relative value. It was initiate ...

and the

Maastricht Treaty The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Communities, ...

, and has taken part in debates over

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

in the country. Since 1998, Cicchitto contributes editorials to ''

Il Giornale ''il Giornale'' ( en, The Newspaper) is an Italian language daily newspaper published in Milan, Italy. History and profile The newspaper was founded in 1974 by the journalist Indro Montanelli, together with the colleagues Enzo Bettiza, Ferenc ...

'', and is currently a member of the editorial staff for ''

Avanti! ''Avanti!'' is a 1972 American/Italian international co-production comedy film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. The screenplay by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is based on Samuel A. Taylor's play, ...

''. In November 2009 he founded

Reformism and Freedom Reformism and Freedom (''Riformismo e Libertà'', ReL) is a "reformist" and mainly social democracy, social-democratic think tank in Italy. ReL, whose president is Fabrizio Cicchitto,

(REL), a "reformist" and mainly social-democratic

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

within

the People of Freedom The People of Freedom ( it, Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia a ...

(PdL). After the split of PdL, Cicchitto joined the

New Centre-Right New Centre-Right ( it, Nuovo Centrodestra, NCD) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The party was launched on 15 November 2013 by a group of dissidents of The People of Freedom (PdL) who opposed the party's transformation into Forza Ita ...

(NCD) party. Since 2017 he has been a member of the moderate conservative

Popular Alternative Popular Alternative ( it, Alternativa Popolare, AP) is a Christian-democratic political party in Italy that was founded on 18 March 2017 after the dissolution of New Centre-Right (NCD), one of the two parties that emerged at the break-up of The ...

grouping, which was established following the dissolution of the NCD.

References

Works

* ''Il pensiero economico cattolico'' * ''Politiche nuove per l'industria italiana'' * ''Dall'utopia al potere'' * ''Rapporto pubblico e privato e modernizzazione dell' industria italiana'' * ''Rodolfo Morandi, il partito e la democrazia industriale'' * ''Il governo Craxi'' * ''Storia del centro-sinistra'' * ''Riflessioni sulla fine della prima repubblica e sulla sinistra di governo'' * ''De Gasperi e Togliatti, due protagonisti'' * ''La DC dopo il primo ventennio'' * ''Le scelte dei democratici'' * ''Dal centro-sinistra all'alternativa'' * ''Il grande inganno'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Cicchitto, Fabrizio 1940 births Living people Writers from Rome Italian Socialist Party politicians Socialist Party (Italy, 1996) politicians Forza Italia politicians The People of Freedom politicians New Centre-Right politicians Popular Alternative politicians 21st-century Italian politicians Operation Gladio Italian economists Italian essayists Italian male writers Italian journalists Italian male journalists Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy) Male essayists