Bettino Craxi was a significant
figure in Italian political history whose reforms changed the
country, President Sergio Mattarella said on the 25th
anniversary of the controversial late former Socialist leader's
death in Bribesville-imposed exile in Tunisia.
Craxi, who died in his Hammamet buen retiro at the age of 65 on
January 19, 2005 after fleeing Italian justice on a graft
conviction, was once largely seen as a disgraced and diminished
figure but amid widespread recent re-evaluaton of his
achievements there has been a rising swell of encomium on the
centre right as shown by Saturday's emotional and praise-laden
visits to his tomb by Foreign Minister and post Berlusconi Forza
Italia (FI) leader Antonio Tajani and Senate Speaker and Premier
Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) bigwig Ignazio La
Russa.
"Bettino Craxi was a significant figure in the last decades of
the Italian twentieth century," said Mattarella in his
anniversary statement Sunday.
"An Italian and European parliamentarian, Secretary of the
Italian Socialist Party for over fifteen years, and Prime
Minister (from 1984 to '87), he left his mark on the country's
policies in a period characterized by great social
transformations and profound changes in global balances."
"An authoritative interpreter of our European, Atlantic and
Mediterranean foreign policy, a supporter of the development of
the most disadvantaged countries, open to multilateralism - said
Mattarella - along these lines he faced difficult passages,
strengthening the identity and value of the Italian position.
"A prestige that was then personally recognized with important
roles at the United Nations.
"The policies and reforms he interpreted on the domestic level
determined changes that affected public finances, the
competitiveness of the country, the balances and prospects of
government.
"A marked determination characterized his political battles,
both in the confrontation between parties and in the social and
trade union field, catalyzing contrasting feelings in the
country.
"He gathered a broad consensus when he managed to bring to a
conclusion the process of revision of the Concordat between the
State and the Catholic Church, on whose inclusion in the
Constitution the socialists had expressed themselves, at the
time of the Constituent Assembly, in negative terms.
"The crisis that hit the political system, undermining its
credibility, closed with investigations and trials a season -
recalled the head of State - causing a radical change in
representation.
"Legal events that characterized that stormy passage in the life
of the Republic".
"On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of the socialist
leader, I wish to express feelings of closeness to his family
and to those who shared political commitment and personal
friendship with him", Mattarella concluded.
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