Rumor, Mariano

(1915–1990)

   Benjamin Disraeli’s observation that becoming prime minister is much like climbing a greasy pole is well illustrated by Mariano Rumor. One of many Christian Democrats to serve as premier, he reached the pinnacle by devoted service to the party. Ahigh school teacher who was active on the provincial Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale/National Liberation Committee (CLN) in his native Vicenza after 8 September 1943, he served his party at both the national and local levels. Elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946 and subsequently to Parliament in every election until his death, Rumor was also vice secretary of the Democrazia Cristiana/Christian Democracy Party (DC) in 1950–1951 and again between 1954 and 1958.

   His first ministerial appointment was as deputy secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture under Alcide De Gasperi (1951) and Giuseppe Pellain 1954. One of the leading lights of the centrist doroteofaction, he became a fixture in subsequent DC administrations until, in December 1968, he became president of the Council of Ministers in his own right, a post he retained until August 1970, heading three different coalitions. His period as prime minister was characterized by both intricate political maneuvering within the DC and growing social tensions and political violence in Italy. His government did, however, pass the enabling legislation that authorized the holding of referendums and instituted a regional layer of government. Rumor returned to the premiership in July 1973, and his administration lasted, in two incarnations, until November 1974. In these years, public dissatisfaction with the DC’s corruption and misrule came to a head. Rumor was subsequently implicated personally in the Lockheed bribery scandal (which forced President Giovanni Leoneto resign before his term had expired) but was exonerated by Parliament in 1978. The following year, he was elected to the Italian Senate and was reelected in 1983 and 1987. He died in Rome in 1990.

   See also Regionalism; Tambroni, Fernando.