Italy says goodbye to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who died this morning in a Roman clinic at the age of 95. He was the tenth president of the Republic from 1999 to 2006 and had previously served as governor of the Bank of Italy for 14 years, from 1979 to 93. He was also the first non-parliamentary Prime Minister in the history of the Republic ( 1993-94) and minister several times.
Immediate demonstrations of condolences from all over the country. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wrote on Twitter:
The government's embrace of Signora Franca. And a grateful thought to the man of the institutions who served Italy with passion #Ciampi
- Matteo Renzi (@matteorenzi) 16 September 2016
Born in 1920 in Livorno, Ciampi joined the Action Party in his youth, but later he no longer joined any political party. He graduated in Literature in 1941, defending a thesis in classical philology and Greek literature at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. Here he met Franca Pilla, his future wife. He was drafted in the same year with the rank of second lieutenant in the automobile corps and sent to Albania.
When the armistice of 8 September 1943 was signed, Ciampi refused to join the Italian Social Republic and took refuge in Scanno, in Abruzzo. In 1946 he married Franca Pilla, obtained a second degree in law from the University of Pisa and took part in the competition that allowed him to enter the Bank of Italy as an employee, where he remained for 47 years (including 14 as governor).
Considered a key figure for the adoption of the euro, as minister of the treasury (1996-1999) in the Prodi I and D'Alema I governments, he worked to reduce the Italian public debt in view of the obligations imposed by the Maastricht treaty, allowing the Italy's access to the single currency.
As President of the Republic, Ciampi appointed three Prime Ministers: Massimo D'Alema (whose courtesy resignations he presented in 1999), Giuliano Amato (2000-2001) and Silvio Berlusconi (2001-2006) .
Again during his seven-year term at the Quirinale, Ciampi appointed five senators for life: Rita Levi-Montalcini (2001), Emilio Colombo (2003), Mario Luzi (2004), Giorgio Napolitano and Sergio Pininfarina (2005).
Ciampi at the presentation of the book "Carlo Azeglio Ciampi: from Livorno to the Quirinale, the story of an Italian - Conversation with Arrigo Levi", published by Il Mulino.
