Malagodi, Giovanni

(1904–1991)

   The scion of a wellestablished liberal family (Malagodi’s father, Olindo, was a prominent journalist and Anglophile who was appointed to the Senate), Malagodi’s initial career was in international banking. After the war, he was one of the technical experts who contributed to the drawing up of the Marshall Plan and, in the late 1940s, represented the Italian government as minister plenipotentiary in international trade negotiations. In 1950, Malagodi became a top functionary, chairing the committee on the labor market of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). Malagodi’s political career began in 1953 when he was elected to Parliament for the Partito Liberale Italiano/Italian Liberal Party (PLI). He became leader of the PLI in 1954 and held the post until he became treasury minister under Giulio Andreotti in 1972. This was his only ministerial experience; his staunch opposition to statist and interventionist economic policies prevented the PLI from cooperating with the governments of the center-left preferred by such Democrazia Cristiana/Christian Democracy Party (DC) leaders as Amintore Fanfani and Aldo Moro in the 1950s and 1960s. Despite his economic conservatism, Malagodi was strongly in favor of liberal social reforms such as divorce. Malagodi became honorary president of the PLI in 1976. He was elected to the Senate in 1979 and was briefly president of the upper chamber in 1987. He died in Rome in April 1991.