Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (born 9 December 1920 in Livorno) is an Italian politician and banker who has been both Prime Minister of Italy and President of the Italian Republic. He resigned as President before the swearing-in ceremony of his successor Giorgio Napolitano. He is currently a life senator of italian Senate of the Republic.

Biography

Education

Ciampi was born in Livorno (Tuscany).

After receiving a degree in literature in 1941 from the Scuola Normale of Pisa, one of the country's most prestigious universities, he was called to military duty in Albania as a lieutenant. On September 8, 1943, the date of the armistice with the Allies, he refused to remain in the Fascist Italian Social Republic, and took refuge in Abruzzo, in Scanno. He subsequently managed to pass the lines and reach Bari, where he joined the Partito d'Azione (and thus the Italian resistance movement).

In 1946 he married Franca Pila. The same year, he also obtained a degree in law from the University of Pisa in 1946. That same year, he began working at the Banca d'Italia. He also inscribed to CGIL, a member of which he remained until 1980.

Career in the Banca d'Italia

In 1960, he was called to work in the central administration of the Banca d'Italia, where he became Secretary General in 1973, Vice Director General in 1976, and Director General in 1978. In October 1979, he was nominated Governor of the Banca d'Italia and President of the Ufficio Italiano Cambi, positions he filled until 1993.

Prime Minister

From April 1993 to May 1994, he was the Italian Prime Minister overseeing a technical government. Later, as Treasury Minister from 1996 to May 1999 in the governments of Romano Prodi and Massimo D'Alema, he was credited with adopting the euro currency. He personally chose the Italian design for the 1-euro coin, whereas all others were left to a television vote among some candidates the ministry had prepared. (See also: Italian euro coins)

Ciampi chose the Vitruvian man of Leonardo da Vinci, on the symbolic grounds that it represented man as a measure of all things, and in particular of the coin: in this perspective, money was at the service of man, instead of its opposite. The design also fitted very well on the bimetallic material of the coin.

President of Italy

Ciampi was elected with a broad majority, and was the second president ever to be elected at the first ballot (when there is a requirement of a two-thirds majority) in a plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Italian Senate.

As a president, he usually refrained from intervening directly into the political debate. However, he has often addressed general issues, without mentioning their connection to the current political debate, in order to state his opinion without being too intrusive. His interventions have frequently stressed the need for all parties to respect the constitution and observe the proprieties of political debate. He is generally held in high regard by all political forces represented in the parliament. The possibility of persuading Ciampi to stand for a second term as president - the so-called Ciampi-bis - was widely discussed, despite his advancing age but it was officially dismissed by Ciampi himself on 3 May 2006, just a few days before his mandate expired.

President Ciampi is not considered to be close to the positions of the Vatican and the Catholic church, in a sort of alternance after the devout Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. He has often praised patriotism, not a common feeling in Italy because of the Fascist past; President Ciampi, however, seems to want to stress self-confidence rather than nationalism.

On May 5, 2005, he received the Charlemagne Award of the city of Aachen. On June 15, 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the École Normale Supérieure of Paris.

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Biography

Education

Career in the Banca d'Italia

Prime Minister

President of Italy