Pier Luigi Romita (27 July 1924 – 23 March 2003) was an Italian politician who was several times a minister of the Italian Republic.

Biography

Romita was born in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, the son of

Giuseppe Romita Giuseppe Romita (7 January 1887 – 15 March 1958) was an Italian socialist politician. He served several times as a cabinet minister and member of the Italian Parliament. Early life and education The son of Guglielmo Romita and Maria Gianneli, ...

, a long-time member 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 ...

(''Partito Socialista Italiano''; PSI) and Minister of the Interior in 1946. During the Fascist period, he followed his father into confinement on the islands of

Ustica Ustica (; ) is a small Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is about across and is situated north of Capo Gallo, Sicily. Roughly 1,300 people live in the ''comune'' (municipality) of the same name. There is a regular ferry service ...

and

Ponza Ponza (Italian: ''isola di Ponza'' ) is the largest island of the Italy, Italian Pontine Islands archipelago, located south of Cape Circeo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is also the name of the commune of the island, a part of the province of Latina ...

, and then at

Veroli Veroli () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, central Italy, in the Latin Valley. History Veroli (''Verulae'') became a Ancient Rome, Roman municipium in 90 BC. It became the seat of a bishopric in 743 AD, and was occupi ...

. In 1933 the family moved to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. In 1942, aged 19, he entered the PSI and took part in the

Italian resistance movement The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic during the Second World War in Italy ...

, as a member of the partisan bands operating in the

Colli Albani The Alban Hills () are the caldera remains of a quiescent volcanic complex in Italy, located southeast of Rome and about north of Anzio. The high Monte Cavo forms a highly visible peak in the centre of the caldera, but the highest point i ...

. In 1947 he graduated in engineering and later taught hydraulics in the Faculty of Agronomy of the

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

. In 1958, after the death of his father, he was elected to 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 ...

for the

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

(''Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano''; PSDI), where he remained until the end of the XI legislature in 1994. Romita's first government positions were as undersecretary for Public Works (1963–1966), Education (1966–1968 and 1970–1972) and the Interior (1968–1969). He was subsequently the Minister of Scientific Research on three occasions, in the Andreotti II (1972–1973), Forlani (1980–1981) and Fanfani V (1982–1983) Cabinets. He was also Minister of Regional Affairs (1983–1984) and for the Budget (1984–1987) respectively in the first and second Craxi governments. Romita was national secretary of the PSDI from 1976 to 1978, succeeding

Giuseppe Saragat Giuseppe Saragat (; 19 September 1898 – 11 June 1988) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as President of Italy from 1964 to 1971. Early life Saragat was born on 19 September 1898 in Turin, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy, to Sard ...

. In early 1989 he left the party and, together with

Pietro Longo Pietro Longo (born 29 October 1935) is an Italian politician. Longo was born in Rome. His mother, Rosetta Longo, from Campobasso, was a member of the Italian Socialist Party (''Partito Socialista Italiano''; PSI). Longo studied social sciences ...

, founded the Movement of Unity and Socialist Democracy (''Movimento di Unità e Democrazia Socialista''; UDS), which merged later that same year with the PSI. He was Minister of Community Policies in the Andreotti VII Cabinet. After the disbandment of the PSI in 1994, he entered the newly formed

Italian Socialists The Italian Socialists (, SI) were a minor social-democratic political party in Italy active from 1994 to 1998. The party was the legal successor of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), following its dissolution by the 47th Party Congress due to ...

(SI) and then, from 1997, the

Democratic Party of the Left The Democratic Party of the Left (, PDS) was a democratic-socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, the party was the largest in the A ...

(PDS). Romita died in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

in 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Romita, Pier Luigi 1924 births 2003 deaths Engineers from Turin Italian Democratic Socialist Party politicians Italian Socialist Party politicians Democratic Party of the Left politicians Italian resistance movement members 20th-century Italian engineers