Pier Luigi Romita Explained

Pier Luigi Romita
Office1:Minister for the Coordination of Community Policies
Primeminister1:Giulio Andreotti
Term Start1:23 July 1989
Term End1:28 June 1992
Predecessor1:Antonio Mario La Pergola
Successor1:Raffaele Costa
Office2:Minister for the Budget and Economic Planning
Primeminister2:Bettino Craxi
Term Start2:30 July 1984
Term End2:18 April 1987
Predecessor2:Pietro Longo
Successor2:Giovanni Goria
Office3:Minister for Regional Affairs
Primeminister3:Bettino Craxi
Term Start3:4 August 1983
Term End3:30 July 1984
Predecessor3:Fabio Fabbri
Successor3:Carlo Vizzini
Office4:Minister for Scientific and Technological Research
Primeminister4:Arnaldo Forlani
Term Start4:18 October 1980
Term End4:26 June 1981
Predecessor4:Vincenzo Balzamo
Successor4:Carlo Vizzini
Primeminister5:Giulio Andreotti
Term Start5:26 July 1972
Term End5:8 July 1973
Predecessor5:Fiorentino Sullo
Successor5:Pietro Bucalossi
Office6:Secretary of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party
Term Start6:October 1976
Term End6:October 1978
Predecessor6:Giuseppe Saragat
Successor6:Pietro Longo
Office7:Member of the Chamber of Deputies
Term Start7:12 June 1958
Term End7:15 April 1994
Birth Date:27 July 1924
Birth Place:Turin, Italy
Death Place:Milan, Italy
Alma Mater:Polytechnic University of Milan

Pier Luigi Romita (27 July 1924 – 23 March 2003) was an Italian politician who was several times a minister of the Italian Republic.

Biography

Romita was born in Turin, the son of Giuseppe Romita, a long-time member of the Italian Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano; PSI) and Minister of the Interior in 1946. During the Fascist period, he followed his father into confinement on the islands of Ustica and Ponza, and then at Veroli. In 1933 the family moved to Rome.

In 1942, aged 19, he entered the PSI and took part in the Italian resistance movement, as a member of the partisan bands operating in the Colli Albani. In 1947 he graduated in engineering and later taught Hydraulics in the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Milan. In 1958, after the death of his father, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano; PSDI), where he remained until the end of the XI legislature in 1994.

Romita's first government positions were as undersecretary for Public Works (1963–1966), Education (1966–1968 and 1970–1972) and the Interior (1968–1969). He was subsequently the Minister of Scientific Research on three occasions, in the Andreotti II (1972–1973), Forlani (1980–1981) and Fanfani V (1982–1983) Cabinets. He was also Minister of Regional Affairs (1983–1984) and for the Budget (1984–1987) respectively in the first and second Craxi governments.

Romita was national secretary of the PSDI from 1976 to 1978, succeeding Giuseppe Saragat. In early 1989 he left the party and, together with Pietro Longo, founded the Movement of Unity and Socialist Democracy (Movimento di Unità e Democrazia Socialista; UDS), which merged later that same year with the PSI. He was Minister of Community Policies in the Andreotti VII Cabinet. After the disbandment of the PSI in 1994, he entered the newly formed Italian Socialists (SI) and then, from 1997, the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS).

Romita died in Milan in 2003.