Born Apr. 3, 1881, in Pieve Tesino; died Aug. 19, 1954, in Sella Val Sugana. Italian politician and statesman.
From 1919 to 1926, De Gasperi was a member of the National Council of the Italian Popular Party (a Catholic party), and from 1923 to 1926 he was the party’s secretary. In 1921 he was elected a deputy to parliament, but in 1926 the fascists deprived him of his deputy’s mandate for his involvement in the Aventine Bloc. Between 1930 and 1944, De Gasperi was secretary of the Vatican Library. From 1944 to 1946 he was political secretary of the Christian Democratic Party (which was formed in 1943 and succeeded the former Popular Party), and from 1946 to 1953 he was chairman of the party’s National Council. De Gasperi was chairman of the Italian Council of Ministers from December 1945 through July 1953.
Maneuvering in a complicated domestic political setting and enjoying the support of the Vatican, US imperialist circles, and Italian monopoly capital, De Gasperi played a major role in ensuring the Christian Democratic Party’s ascendancy in postwar Italian politics. As a result of a government crisis in 1947, Communists and Socialists were removed from the De Gasperi government. In foreign policy De Gasperi was oriented toward the USA.