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 ( it, Corte costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana) is the highest court of Italy in matters of constitutional law. Sometimes, the name ''Consulta'' is used as a metonym for it, because its sessi ...

for his involvement in the Lockheed bribery scandal.

Biography

Tanassi was born at

Ururi Ururi ( Arbërisht: ''Rùri'') is an Arbëreshë ''comune'' in the Province of Campobasso, in the Italian region Molise, located about northeast of Campobasso. Ururi developed in the late 16th century settlement when Albanian military captain Te ...

, in the

province of Campobasso A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

. He joined the

Italian Democratic Socialist Party The Italian Democratic Socialist Party (, PSDI), also known as Italian Social Democratic Party, was a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. The longest serving partner in government for Christian Democracy, the PSDI had been an ...

(''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 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 ...

. He was minister of defence for the first time in the Rumor II Cabinet (1970), formed by an alliance between Christian Democracy (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 The Italian Liberal Party ( it, Partito Liberale Italiano, PLI) was a liberal and conservative political party in Italy. The PLI, which is the heir of the liberal currents of both the Historical Right and the Historical Left, was a minor part ...

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 plaintif ...

corruption scandals in the 1990s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanassi, Mario 1916 births 2007 deaths People from the Province of Campobasso Italian Democratic Socialist Party politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Government ministers of Italy Finance ministers of Italy Italian Ministers of Defence Deputy Prime Ministers of Italy