Riccardo Lombardi (16 August 1901 – 18 September 1984) was an Italian politician.

Early life

Lombardi was born in

Regalbuto Regalbuto (Latin: Ameselum; Sicilian: ''Regarbutu'') is a ''comune'' in the province of Enna, Sicily, southern Italy. There is an annual cattle fair held in the month of August. History Regalbuto may be the ancient town of Amaselos, which w ...

, in the

province of Enna The province of Enna (; Sicilian: ''pruvincia di Enna''; officially ''libero consorzio comunale di Enna'') is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy. It was created in 1927, out of parts of the provinces of Caltanisetta an ...

(now in the

province of Catania The province of Catania (; ) was a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy. Its capital was the city of Catania. It had an area of and a total population of about 1,116,917 as of 31 December 2014. Historically known also as ...

), in 1901. He studied at the Pennisi College of Acireale. After completing his high school studies, he attended the Polytechnic of Milan, where he obtained a degree in Industrial Engineering. He joined the Italian People's Party (PPI) of Don Luigi Sturzo, thus sympathizing with the Christian Labor Party, which was founded in 1920 by left-wing members of the PPI, such as Guido Miglioli, to whom he was very attached. He participated in some actions of the Arditi del Popolo, including the defense of the socialist newspaper ''Avanti!'' from the assault of the

Italian fascist Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...

squads. In 1923, Lombardi collaborated with ''Il Domani d'Italia'', a newspaper of the Catholic left. When Italian Catholicism gave up actively opposing

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

, he approached

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

culture, also drawing inspiration from

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , ; ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosophy, Marxist philosopher, Linguistics, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, Political philosophy, political the ...

, and gradually deviated from its own Catholic formation. After the suppression of political parties decreed on 5 November 1926 by the

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party (, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian fascism and as a reorganisation of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The party ruled the Kingdom of It ...

(PNF) regime, he continued to participate in clandestine activity with

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

exponents of various tendencies, in particular with the

communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

whose activism he appreciated, while refusing to join the

Communist Party of Italy The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

. In those years, Lombardi met his partner and future wife, Ena Viatto (1906–1986), who fell in love with him and separated from Girolamo Li Causi. In 1930, following a leafleting action, he was attacked by the

Blackshirts The Voluntary Militia for National Security (, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts (, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the National Fascist Party, known as the Squadrismo, and after 1923 an all-vo ...

, then arrested and tortured with batons by the police at the PNF headquarters. The beatings injured his lung and he never fully recovered from the after-effects of the violence.

Italian resistance and political activity

A leader of 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 ...

against

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

during

World War II 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 ...

, Lombardi was one of the founders of the Action Party (PdA) in 1942. He was member of the National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy, from which at the Liberation he was appointed Prefect of

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 ...

(from 30 April 1945 to December 1945). In this office, he testified in favour of the former fascist prefect of Milan, Piero Parini. He participated in the first De Gasperi government (10 December 1945 – 1 July 1946) as Italian Minister of Transport, starting the rapid reconstruction of the railway network. Lombardi represented the PdA in the

Constituent Assembly of Italy The Italian Constituent Assembly ( Italian: ''Assemblea Costituente della Repubblica Italiana'') was a parliamentary chamber which existed in Italy from 25 June 1946 until 31 January 1948. It was tasked with writing a constitution for the Ital ...

from 1946 to 1948 and 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 ...

(PSI) in Italy's

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 ...

from 1948 to 1983. In 1980, he was appointed president of the PSI and represented the party left wing.

Forged NATO document incident

On 18 June 1970, Lombardi made claims before the country's Chamber of Deputies, based on a document printed on

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

stationery, that the organization was planning to move troops into Italy as a result of the perceived political instability. Lombardi stated that he had received the document at the end of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on 25 May 1970. The document was later rejected as a forgery by the Italian Foreign Ministry and by NATO headquarters.

Death

Lombardi died of pulmonary fibrosis and respiratory failure at the Roman clinic Mater Dei. By his explicit will, he was cremated without religious rites.E' MORTO A ROMA RICCARDO LOMBARDI
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Electoral history

References