Giorgio Napolitano Bio, Wiki, Death, Age, height, Education, Networth, Family and More

Early political career

From post-war years to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956

In 1944, along with the group of Neapolitan communists, as Mario Palermo and Maurizio Valenzi, Napolitano prepared the arrival in Naples of Palmiro Togliatti, the long-time leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) who was in exile since 1926 when the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) was banned by the Fascist regime in Italy, and Togliatti was one of few leaders not to be arrested, as he was attending a meeting of the Comintern in Moscow. In 1945, he joined the PCI.

Following the end of the war in 1945, Napolitano became the PCI's federal secretary for Naples and Caserta. In 1947, he graduated in jurisprudence with a final dissertation on political economy, entitled Il mancato sviluppo industriale del Mezzogiorno dopo l'unità e la legge speciale per Napoli del 1904 ("The Lack of Industrial Development in the Mezzogiorno following the Unification of Italy and the Special Law of 1904 for Naples"). He became a member of the Secretariat of the Italian Economic Centre for Southern Italy in 1946, which was represented by Giuseppe Paratore, where he remained for two years. Napolitano played a major role in the Movement for the Rebirth of Southern Italy for over ten years.

In the 1953 Italian general election, Napolitano was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the electoral district of Naples. Apart from the 1963 Italian general election, when he did not sought re-election because he was the secretary of the Naples federation, a position he held from 1962 to 1966, he was always re-elected up to the 1996 Italian general election. He was elected to the National Committee of the party during its eighth national congress in 1956, largely thanks to the support offered by Togliatti, who wanted to involve younger politicians in the central direction of the party. He became responsible for the commission for Southern Italy within the National Committee.

In 1953, a document of the Italian Ministry of the Interior reported Napolitano as a member of the secret armed paramilitary groups of the PCI in the city of Rome, what became known as Gladio Rossa. Later on in the same year, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and its military suppression by the Soviet Union (USSR) occurred. The leadership of the PCI labelled the insurgents as counter-revolutionaries, and the official party newspaper L'Unità referred to them as "thugs" and "despicable agents provocateurs". Napolitano complied with the party-sponsored position on this matter, a choice he would repeatedly declare to have become uncomfortable with, developing what his autobiography describes as a "grievous self-critical torment". He would reason that his compliance was motivated by concerns about the role of the PCI as "inseparable from the fates of the socialist forces guided by the USSR" as opposed to imperialist forces.

Leading member of the Italian Communist Party

From the 1960s to 1980s

Between 1963 and 1966, Napolitano was party chairman in the city of Naples and later, between 1966 and 1969, he was appointed as chairman of the secretary's office and of the political office. In 1964, following the death of Togliatti, Napolitano was one of the main leaders who supported an alliance with the Italian Socialist Party, which after the end of the Popular Democratic Front joined the government with Christian Democracy. During the 1970s and 1980s, Napolitano was in charge for cultural activities, economic policy, and the international relations of the party.

After the Italian Communist Party

After the dissolution of the PCI in February 1991, Napolitano followed most of its membership into the Democratic Party of the Left, a democratic socialist and social democratic party, which is considered the post-Communist evolution of the PCI.

President of the Chamber of Deputies

In 1992, he was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies, replacing Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who became president of the Italian Republic. That legislature was hit by Tangentopoli and his presidency became one of the fronts of the relationship between the judiciary and politics.

Late 1990s and early 2000s

After the 1996 Italian general election, the Italian centre-left Prime Pinister Romano Prodi selected him as Minister of the Interior. He was the first former Communist to hold the office, a role traditionally occupied by Christian Democrats.[20] In this capacity, he took part, together with fellow lawmaker and cabinet minister Livia Turco, in drafting the government-sponsored law on immigration control (Legislative Decree No. 40 6 March 1998), better known as the Turco–Napolitano bill.[citation needed] Napolitano remained Minister of the Interior until October 1998, when Prodi's government lost its majority in the Parliament.

President of Italy

First term (2006–2013)

Election

The 2006 Italian general election saw a victory of Prodi, Italy's centre-left coalition candidate, against the incumbent Italian centre-right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. After the election, the presidents of both houses of parliament were chosen by the winning centre-left coalition, and so the centre-right House of Freedoms demanded an impartial candidate for the role of president of the Republic. The Union stressed the fact that the Italian constitution demands that the president be a defender of the constitution, hinting that such a quality was scarce among the opposition members.

Second term (2013–2015)

Re-election

Following five inconclusive ballots for the 2013 Italian presidential election, Napolitano accepted to be re-elected aspPresident – an unprecedented move – following pleas by Monti and the leaders of the main political blocks, Pier Luigi Bersani and Berlusconi.[73] Napolitano reluctantly agreed to serve for another term in order to safeguard the continuity of the country's institutions. Napolitano was easily re-elected on 20 April, receiving 738 of the 1,007 possible votes, and was sworn in on 22 April after a speech when he asked for constitutional and electoral reforms.

Honours

National honours

•  Italy: Head of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (15 May 2006 – 14 January 2015)
•  Italy: Head of the Military Order of Italy (15 May 2006 – 14 January 2015)
•  Italy: Head of the Order of Merit for Labour (15 May 2006 – 14 January 2015)
•  Italy: Head of the Order of the Star of Italy reformed from Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity (15 May 2006 – 14 January 2015)
•  Italy: Head of the Order of Vittorio Veneto (15 May 2006 – 14 January 2015)
•  Italy: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (28 October 1998), Grand Cross with Collar (15 May 2006)

Foreign honours

•  Albania: 1st Class of the Order of Skanderbeg (5 March 2014)
•  Austria: Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (26 June 2007)
•  Brazil: Collar of the Order of the Southern Cross (10 November 2008)
•  Bulgaria: Grand Cross of the Order of the Stara Planina (25 February 2009)
•  Chile: Collar of the Order of Merit (15 October 2007)
•  Croatia: Grand Cross of the Grand Order of King Tomislav (14 July 2011)
•  Finland: Grand cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose (9 September 2008)
•  France: Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honour (21 November 2012)
•  Germany: Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (28 February 2013)
•  Ghana: Companion of the Order of the Star of Ghana ( 16 October 2006)
•  Greece: Grand cross of the Order of the Redeemer (23 September 2008)
•  Greece: Recipient of the Medal in Gold of the Parliament Ellenic (23 September 2008)
•  Israel President's Medal (9 June 2014)
•  Jordan: Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of al-Hussein bin Ali (20 October 2009)
•  Kuwait: Collar of the Order of Mubarak the Great (3 May 2010)
•  Lebanon: Member Extraordinary Grade of the Order of Merit (30 October 2008)
•  Lithuania: Commander of the Order of Merit (21 April 2004)
•  Luxembourg: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau ( 2 February 2009)
•  Malta: Honorary Companions of Honour with Collar of the National Order of Merit (30 June 2010)
•  Netherlands: Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion ( 23 October 2012)[100]
•  Palestine: Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Palestine (17 October 2013)
•  Poland: Grand cross of the Order of the White Eagle (11 June 2012)
•  Qatar: Collar of the Collar of the Independence (13 November 2007)
•  Romania: Collar of the Order of the Star of Romania (15 September 2011)
•  San Marino: Collar of the Order of San Marino (13 June 2014)
•  Saudi Arabia: Collar of the Order of King Abdulaziz (5 November 2007)
•  Slovakia: Grand Cross of the Order of the White Double Cross ( 27 February 2007)
•  Slovenia: Member of the Order for Exceptional Merits (17 January 2011)
•  South Korea: Recipient of the Grand Order of Mugunghwa (14 September 2009)
•  Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Collar of the Order pro Merito Melitensi (6 November 2008)
•  Spain: Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (26 September 1998)
•  Sweden: Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim (13 March 2009)
•  Syria: Member 1st Class of the Order of Umayyad (18 March 2010)
•  Turkey: First Class of the Order of the State of Republic of Turkey (26 November 2009)
•   Vatican City: Knight with the Collar Order of Pius IX (November 2006)