Giovanni Francesco Malagodi (12 October 1904 – 17 April 1991) was an Italian liberal politician, secretary of the

Italian Liberal Party The Italian Liberal Party (, PLI) was a liberal political party in Italy. The PLI, which was heir to the liberal currents of both the Historical Right and the Historical Left, was a minor party after World War II, but also a frequent junio ...

(''Partito Liberale Italiano''; PLI), and president of the

Italian Senate The Senate of the Republic (), or simply the Senate ( ), is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament, the lower house being the Chamber of Deputies. The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform iden ...

. He was the third and sixth President of the

Liberal International Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberalism, liberal political parties. The political international was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal and progressive democratic parties aim ...

, in the periods 1958–1966 and 1982–1989 respectively.

Biography

Born in London, he was the son of journalist and politician Olindo Malagodi. Starting from the 1930s, he held directive positions in the

Banca Commerciale Italiana Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI, colloquially known as Comit), founded in 1894, was a major Italian bank based in Milan. In 1999, it merged with the group recently formed by the combination of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde and Ban ...

. He was thus named as Italian representative of the

Organisation for European Economic Co-operation The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum whose member countries ...

(OEEC) soon after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1953 Malagodi entered the Italian Liberal Party and was appointed as the party's national secretary the following year. During his tenure, the PLI abandoned its historical identification with the ''

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

'' and instead established strong ties with

Confindustria The General Confederation of Italian Industry (), commonly known as Confindustria, is the Italy, Italian small, medium, and big enterprises federation, acting as a private and autonomous chamber of commerce, founded in 1910. The association netwo ...

, the country's leading association of industrialists. He also opposed attempts by the Christian Democrats to form a centre-left alliance with 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 government; this, in 1955, caused the secession of the PLI's left wing, which went on to form the Radical Party. Under Malagodi, in 1963 the PLI scored a record 7% in that year's

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

. With the formation of centre-left governments in the 1960s, the PLI was marginalized in the Italian political world, and suffered a decline that was not halted by the party's participation in the second Giulio Andreotti cabinet of 1972–1973. Malagodi was chosen as Minister of the Treasury in that government, launching a series of measures that favoured younger and more politically aligned bureaucrats, such as the so-called ''pensioni d'oro'' ("Golden pensions"). In 1972 Malagodi resigned as secretary of the PLI, assuming the party's presidency that same year. He abandoned this latter position in 1976 after coming into conflict with Valerio Zanone, the new leader of the PLI, who was more oriented towards a collaboration with centre-left parties. Malagodi was the president of the

from 22 April to 1 July 1987, succeeding

Amintore Fanfani Amintore Fanfani (; 6 February 1908 – 20 November 1999) was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War an ...

. Between 1954 and 1965, Malagodi participated in several

Bilderberg conference The Bilderberg Meeting (also known as the "Bilderberg Group", "Bilderberg Conference" or "Bilderberg Club") is an annual off-the-record forum established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally ...

s. He died in Rome in April 1991.

Electoral history

External links

Profile at Italian Senate
Presidents of the Italian Senate Presidents of the Liberal International 1904 births 1991 deaths Italian Liberal Party politicians British emigrants to Italy {{Lombardy-politician-stub