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Enrico De Nicola OMRI
Official portrait, 1948
President of Italy
In office 1 January 1948 – 12 May 1948
Prime Minister	Alcide De Gasperi
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Luigi Einaudi
Provisional Head of State of Italy
In office 28 June 1946 – 1 January 1948
Prime Minister	Alcide De Gasperi
Preceded by	Alcide De Gasperi
Succeeded by	Position abolished
President of the Constitutional Court
In office 23 January 1956 – 26 March 1957
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Gaetano Azzariti
President of the Senate of the Republic
In office 28 April 1951 – 24 June 1952
Preceded by	Ivanoe Bonomi
Succeeded by	Giuseppe Paratore
President of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 26 June 1920 – 25 January 1924
Preceded by	Vittorio Emanuele Orlando
Succeeded by	Alfredo Rocco
Personal details
Born	(1877-11-09)9 November 1877 Naples, Campania, Kingdom of Italy
Died	1 October 1959(1959-10-01) (aged 81) Torre del Greco, Campania, Italy
Political party	Italian Liberal Party
Alma mater	University of Naples Federico II
Profession	Lawyer
Signature

Enrico De Nicola, OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [enˈriːko de niˈkɔːla] ; 9 November 1877 – 1 October 1959) was an Italian jurist, journalist, politician, and first President of the Italian Republic.

Biography

Early life

Enrico De Nicola was born in Naples, the son of Angelo and Concetta Capranica. He studied law in the University of Naples, graduating in 1896 at the age of nineteen. He became famous in his city, first as a journalist writing on judicial matters for the Don Marzio newspaper and then as a penal lawyer. In his early writings he paired a conservative approach to social issues with a strong support for civil liberties was known for a conservative approach to social issues while still being strongly supportive of civil liberties. He left the Don Marzio in 1899, after writing an article that was critical of the new public order law proposed by Prime Minister Luigi Pelloux.

Beginnings of political career

Taking advantage of the prestige enjoyed by the legal profession in Southern cities at the time, De Nicola entered politics in 1907, when he was elected to the city council of Naples on a list supporting incumbent mayor Ferdinando Del Carretto. In 1909 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the constituency of Afragola, where he would be reelected in 1913. He supported Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti, a liberal reformer, and filled a number of legislative and minor governmental posts from 1913 to 1921. He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in the Giolitti cabinet (November 1913 — March 1914) and Under-Secretary of State for the Treasury in the Orlando cabinet (January–June 1919). He was also active on bills concerning the judiciary and financial issues.

Speakership and rise of Fascism

In the 1919 election, the first held with a proportional representation system, he was elected in the constituency of Naples with the Democratic Liberal Party. On 26 June 1920 he became Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. As Speaker he undertook a significant modernization of parliamentary work, introducing permanent committees which replaced the previous system where, aside from three standing committees (Finance; Industry, Agriculture and Labor; Petitions) all bills would be examined by ad hoc bodies. He also gave a formal role to parliamentary groups, which was better suited for a time when, with the introduction of universal suffrage, political life was led by parties with a mass following. After the 1921 election, where he was elected for the fourth time, Giolitti recommended him as Prime Minister. De Nicola, however, chose to pass the opportunity to Ivanoe Bonomi. In July he brokered the pacification pact between Fascists and Socialists, an unsuccessful attempt at reducing the street violence of the Blackshirts. He was again considered as a prospective Prime Minister after Bonomi's resignation in February 1922 but he renounced this time as well, blaming the excessive demands of the Catholic People's Party.

His meek attitude after the March on Rome and the rise to power of Benito Mussolini was strongly criticized by anti-fascists at the time: Filippo Turati described him as a "monument to cowardice", while Piero Gobetti said that he was "the representative of convention, empty rhetoric, weakness, opportunism". Like the majority of the Italian liberal establishment of the time he underestimated the subversive potential of Fascism and was acquiescent and passive during its rise. This, which greatly damaged his credibility at the time, would resurface in polemic newspaper articles after World War II. While he favored a return to plurality voting he also supported the Acerbo law, which gave a large majority bonus to the most voted list. After some hesitation he was a candidate in the 1924 election with the National List, where the Fascist government had coopted many nationalist, conservative and liberal members of the establishment, but he withdrew a few days before the vote. While still elected, he didn't take his seat.

With the establishment of a dictatorship he withdrew from political life and returned to forensic practice. In 1926 he chaired a ministerial committee to examine the new criminal code drafted by Alfredo Rocco; in this occasion he was strongly critical of some aspects, including the reintroduction of capital punishment. He was appointed senator by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1929, but he refused to take his seat and never took part in the workings of the Assembly.

De Nicola signs the Italian Constitution on 27 December 1947

Return to politics

After the fall of Fascism and the armistice between Italy and the Allies, De Nicola was an influential mediator in the emerging constitutional crisis between the monarchy and the anti-fascist parties. The latter were the strongest political forces, represented a majority of resistance fighters in occupied areas, and often had a long history of exile, political persecution and underground opposition during the dictatorship. They saw Victor Emmanuel III as complicit with the Fascist regime and the war, which put the legitimacy of the monarchy in question while the war was still ongoing. Benedetto Croce, a philosopher and prominent critic of Mussolini, suggested that the the King might abdicate in favour of his infant grandson, postponing any debate on the form of government until the end of the conflict. De Nicola, unconvinced that this solution would be accepted by the sovereign, instead proposed that heir apparent Umberto should exercise royal powers with the title of Lieutenant-General of the Realm. This latter formula was eventually adopted, which paved the way for the formation of a cabinet where the anti-fascist parties were represented.

De Nicola enjoyed public recognition and a positive reception across the political spectrum for his role as dealbreaker. He joined the Italian Liberal Party on Croce's invitation but kept a low profile. In September 1945 he became a member of the National Council, a provisional legislative body, and chair of its Justice committee. In spite of this, he turned down offers to run in the upcoming elections for a Constituent Assembly, possibly because he was a monarchist and didn't want to take part in the campaign for the 1946 referendum for establishment of a republic.

Provisional Head of State and President of the Republic

After the republican option scored a narrow victory and King Umberto II was exiled, the Constituent Assembly convened in late June 1946 to elect a Provisional Head of State. The Prime Minister, Alcide De Gasperi, was inclined to choose a political figure from the pre-Fascist democratic era, who had to be both a Southerner (to balance the prevalence of high-profile politicians from the North of the country during that time) and a monarchist. The Socialist Party proposed Croce, who was vetoed by De Gasperi's Christian Democracy party (DC) because he was perceived as excessively secular. The DC suggested Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, who faced the opposition of the Communist Party. Communist secretary Palmiro Togliatti said that the choice could fall on someone who wasn't a member of the Assembly. At first this was interpreted as a reference to musician and conductor Arturo Toscanini, but eventually the choice fell on De Nicola. The Neapolitan lawyer was hesitant, but eventually accepted after a private conversation with a personal acquaintaince, lawyer Porzio. Giulio Andreotti later recalled that De Nicola — a man of great modesty — was not sure whether to accept the nomination, and underwent frequent changes of mind in the face of repeated insistence by all the major political leaders. Andreotti recalled that the journalist Manlio Lupinacci then issued an appeal to De Nicola in the pages of Il Giornale d'Italia: "Your Excellency, please, decide to decide if you can accept to accept...." On June 29 he was elected with 396 votes out of 504, enjoying the support of most parties. The main exceptions were the Italian Republican Party and the Action Party, who didn't want a monarchist head of state and voted for Cipriano Facchinetti, and the right-wing populist Common Man's Front, who voted for Ottavia Penna Buscemi.

As Provisional Head of State he became known for his austere manners and strictly formal approach to his role. In disagreement with De Gasperi's choice of starting a government crisis to force the removal of Communist and Socialist ministers, he opted to seek alternative candidates (Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and Francesco Saverio Nitti) who could preserve the national unity government before accepting the outgoing Prime Minister's goal of a more narrow, centrist coalition, something that was seen as a mark of distance from DC and De Gasperi. He also resigned shortly after, on 25 June 1947, citing health reasons. The Constituent Assembly re-elected him the following day with 405 votes out of 431. While in public De Nicola's resignation was considered a sign of humbleness, according to historian Piero Craveri the effect was that of stressing that the majority that had elected him was different from the narrow one supporting De Gasperi.

Over the summer he also resisted giving his personal assent to the peace treaty with the Allies, arguing that the Assembly's vote should be considered sufficient as ratification, something that was again considered a veiled criticism of the government. The peace treaty had been attacked over its punitive clauses both by left-wing parties and some high-profile right-wing liberals, while the DC and its government allies pushed it forward in the hope of speeding up Italy's reintegration in the international system, and particularly the emerging US-led Western bloc.

On 1 January 1948, when the Italian Constitution took effect, he formally took the title of "President of the Italian Republic". A few months before the 1948 elections, which saw a heated campaign between the DC and the leftist Popular Front, he refused to deliver a message to the United States thanking them for the Marshall Plan, to avoid benefiting the government. He publicly declined to be a candidate for the next presidential election, held in May, possibly with the idea of pushing the public opinion and the main parties to back his return and override De Gasperi's opposition. The DC, however, immediately sought alternative candidates, starting with Foreign Minister Carlo Sforza, meaning that De Nicola only received votes from the left-wing parties. Even then, Sforza polled below expectations in the first ballot, finishing second after De Nicola. Only on the third ballot the main parties agreed on another Liberal politician, Luigi Einaudi.

Post-presidency

As a former President of the Republic he became a Senator for life after the end of his term. When Ivanoe Bonomi died in April 1951 he was elected President of the Senate and held the post until June 1952, when he resigned. The resort to resignation, which a biographer characterised as "proverbial", was intended to avoid overseeing the discussion of the controversial voting law that would be approved the next year.

In 1956 President Giovanni Gronchi appointed him in the first batch of judges to the Constitutional Court, where he was elected as its first President. He thus has been the only person to serve in four of the five highest offices of the Italian Republic (missing only the prime-ministership). As a judge of the Constitutional Court he oversaw 81 decisions, including the landmark first case where the Court recognized its ability to perform judicial review on laws before the entry into force of the Constitution, something which enabled them to overturn a number of Fascist-era laws. Despite having been nominated for a nine-year term he left this post after only fourteen months, returning to the Senate.

He died at Torre del Greco, in the province of Naples, on 1 October 1959.

Personal life

As head of state, Enrico De Nicola became notorious for his austere lifestyle. Despite having lost most of his personal savings from war bond investments he refused a salary and didn't take up residence in the Quirinal Palace, opting for the more modest Palazzo Giustiniani. He arrived at his inauguration driving his own private car.

Over his political career he was also characterised as extremely cautious, as evinced by the many occasions where he resigned or turned down an office. Occasionally this was a subject of mockery in the press, or gave rise to urban legends. According to one of them, De Nicola would always carry a booklet where he would take notes on what he found to be the best practice for the office of President. When his successor Luigi Einaudi asked to see the booklet, he found it empty.

He was unmarried and had no children.

Honors

– Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity

– Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1956)

Bibliography and notes

• Andrea Jelardi, Enrico De Nicola. Il presidente galantuomo, Kairòs, Naples (2009). (in Italian)
• Piero Craveri, DE NICOLA, Enrico in "Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani" (1990). Treccani. (in Italian)
• Cesare Merzagora (6 October 1959), Commemorazione di Enrico De Nicola. [Commemoration of Enrico De Nicola] (Speech) (in Italian). Senate of the Republic.

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Daydreamers/sandbox in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW