Scalfaro led Italy in ’ 90s

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who died last Sunday at 93, was one of the architects of Italy’s postwar constitution and in 1992 rose to the presidency — only to be confronted with a bribery and political funding scandal that swept away the party system he had helped to establish.

When the search for a new president got underway in May 1992, following the surprise resignation of Francesco Cossiga, Scalfaro was speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, a job that got him wide exposure as he tried to keep order during 15 unsuccessful attempts to elect a head of state.

But it was the murder of Italy’s leading anti-mafia judge that clinched his election after an outburst of public rage against the “political class” that had failed to protect him. The crisis forced Italian parliamentarians to come together, and Scalfaro was elected president with a large majority.

But barely four months after his election, Italy was plunged into a deep financial crisis and a 25-per-cent devaluation of the lira. Six months later the cabinet of his first prime minister, Giuliano Amato, was decimated as a graft scandal took hold. The scandal would wipe out much of Italy’s political class and lead to the demise of the two parties — the Christian Democrats and the centre-left Social Democrats — that had dominated postwar Italian politics. At one time 40 per cent of Italian parliamentarians were under investigation for corruption.

After stepping down from the presidency, Scalfaro dedicated the rest of his political career, as a senator for life, to the defence of the constitution against attempts to modify it by Silvio Berlusconi, with whom he was always on bad terms.