Francesco de Martino (31 May 1907 – 18 November 2002) was an Italian jurist, politician, lifetime senator (1991–2002) and former Vice President of the Council of Ministers. He was considered by many to be the conscience of 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 ...

Biography

De Martino was born on 31 May 1907 in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. He graduated from the law school Federico II in Naples, and, under the guidance of Enrico De Nicola, embarked on the study of law and economics and became a distinguished scholar of

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

. Emeritus Professor of law at the law school Federico II in Naples, he published several tomes, among which, the History of the Roman Constitution (in six tomes, which was compared for his monumental significance to the "Staatsrecht" by

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; ; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th ce ...

) and the Economic History of Ancient Rome; his publications were translated in English, Spanish, German, French and Chinese. He first joined the Action Party (an anti-fascist political party) in 1943, and then joined the reconstituted Socialist party in 1945. At the first elections of the new Italian Republic in 1948, he was elected to Parliament with the Popular Front alliance of communists and socialists. He soon won the confidence of party leader Pietro Nenni, to whom he became vice secretary. In 1959 Nenni would entrust De Mortino with leading the socialist magazine '' Mondoperaio''. De Martino served as

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

during the Rumor I, Rumor III, and

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

governments. De Martino was for two times the PSI's candidate to the presidential elections, in 1971 and 1978. This time, however, the more popular socialist, the former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Sandro Pertini was elected. De Martino candidacy was tarnished when the family paid a 1bn lire ransom for his release his son

Guido Guido is a given name. It has been a male first name in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Argentina, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and Latin America, as well as other places with migration from those. Regarding origins, there ...

who was kidnapped by the

Camorra The Camorra (; ) is an Italian Mafia-typeMafia and Mafia-type orga ...

for 40 days. The kidnappers were eventually captured, but those behind them were never discovered. In 1976, he was ousted as party secretary by

Bettino Craxi Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( ; ; ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician and statesman, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th Prime Minister of Italy, prime minister of Italy from 1 ...

when the PSI lost in the elections falling below 10% for the second time. De Martino became the scapegoat, and Craxi became Italy's first socialist Prime Minister in 1983. Nonetheless, he continued to be elected to the Parliament, and, on 1 June 1991 was appointed senator for life. After this appointment he joined the post-communist

Democrats of the Left The Democrats of the Left (, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy. Positioned on the centre-left, the DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger ...

. He was dismayed by the demise of the historical socialist party after the corruption under Craxi. He resumed his academic career at the law school Federico II, where his secular funeral was celebrated in the presence of the President of Italy,

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (; 9 December 1920 – 16 September 2016) was an Italian politician, statesman and banker who was the President of Italy from 1999 to 2006 and the Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994. A World War II veteran, C ...

. De Martino died in Naples on 18 November 2002. He is survived by his children, Armando,

, Antonino, Elisa and Laura.

Electoral history

References

External links