Giuseppe Saragat


Giuseppe Saragat was an Italian politician who was the fifth President of Italy from 1964 to 1971.

Early life

Born to Sardinian parents, he was of the Unitary Socialist Party from 1922. He moved to Vienna in 1926 and to France in 1929.

Political career

Saragat joined the Italian Socialist Party in 1930. He was a reformist democratic socialist who split from the Italian Socialist Party in 1947 out of concern over its then-close alliance with the Italian Communist Party. He founded the Socialist Party of Italian Workers, which would soon become the Italian Democratic Socialist Party. He would be the latter's paramount leader for the rest of his life.
He had been minister without portfolio for the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity in 1944 and ambassador in Paris from 1945 to 1946, Saragat was appointed President of the Constituent Assembly of Italy. He was then Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1963 to 1964, when he was chosen President of the Italian Republic. His election was the result of one of the rare instances of unity in the Italian left and followed rumours of a possible neo-fascist coup during Antonio Segni's presidency.
He is said to have been an atheist, but after that he became a catholic and he had religious funeral.