Lelio Lagorio

Letizia Argenteri. Lelio Lagorio. Un socialista. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2020. 328 pp. EUR 19.00, paper, ISBN 978-88-498-6115-0. Reviewed by Stefano Luconi (University of Padua) Published on H-Italy (January, 2021) Commissioned by Matteo Pretelli (University of Naples "L'Orientale") Lelio Lagorio Marking the twentieth anniversary of Bettino the first president of the Tuscany region from 1970 Craxi’s death, the year 2020 has seen an eruption of to 1978. Lagorio used his effective management of mainly popularizing and uneven works about the local administrations as a springboard to launch late Italian Socialist leader and former prime min‐ his political career at the national level. Following ister that have endeavored less to appraise his his election to Parliament in 1979, he was appoin‐ policies than to reassess his controversial involve‐ ted to the position of minister of defense in 1980 ment in the political corruption of the last phase in and retained such a capacity in five different gov‐ Italy’s so-called First Republic.[1] Letizia Argen‐ ernments until 1983, proving to be a “fiercer” teri’s volume apparently takes an alternative backer of the Western Alliance than any of his route in the recent literature about the downfall Christian Democratic predecessors, as political sci‐ and disbandment of Italy’s Socialist Party in the entist Joseph LaPalombara has suggested.[2] He wake of the Tangentopoli (bribesville) scandal. Her then headed the Ministry of Tourism and Show book intends to offer an academic reconstruction Business from 1983 to 1986 and chaired the De‐ of the biography of Lelio Lagorio, a long-time Craxi fense Committee of the Chamber of Deputies stalwart and a lesser Socialist bigwig at the end of between 1987 and 1989. In the latter year, he won a the First Republic. seat in the European Parliament for the full third A pupil of jurist Piero Calamandrei, of whom legislative session ending in 1994, when he eventu‐ he was an assistant in the School of Law at the Uni‐ ally retired from active politics after declining to versity of Florence, and a staunch anti-Commun‐ be a candidate for another term. ist, Lagorio became a member of the Italian Social‐ The outcome of numerous years of careful re‐ ist Party in 1955, joining the autonomist wing that search, the monograph draws primarily on referred to Pietro Nenni and advocated independ‐ Lagorio’s almost uncharted papers, held at the ence from the Communist Party. After briefly suc‐ Fondazione di Studi Storici Filippo Turati in ceeding Giorgio La Pira as mayor of Florence for Florence; his extensive publications in the form of fewer than ten months between 1964 and 1965, he newspaper articles, essays, and memoirs; and his served as the city’s deputy mayor until 1969 and interviews and correspondence with the author. H-Net Reviews Yet, although Argenteri relies largely upon sources as Italy wished to keep its neutrality in the civil produced by Lagorio himself, she never falls prey war while Washington and Paris tended to back to the protagonist of her biography and does not the Maronite-Christian faction in the effort to stifle fail to cast a critical eye on him, most notably for Islamic extremists; the inner struggle among his reticence about both the Ustica affair of June Lagorio, Valdo Spini, and Ottaviano Colzi within 27, 1980—when a passenger flight crashed claiming the Socialist Party in Florence, especially on the eighty-one lives during a possible dogfight between occasion of the 1987 parliamentary elections; and Libyan and NATO airplanes—and the kickback the author’s claim that the US government pre‐ system benefiting many Socialists. Argenteri’s ferred Lagorio to Craxi as Italy’s premier in the volume also takes into account a conspicuous mid-1980s (p. 112). One is also likely to wish addi‐ scholarly and current affairs literature on Italian tional information about Lagorio’s stand within politics and the Socialist Party in the 1980s and the cabinet and the Socialist nomenclature on early 1990s. matters such as Craxi’s decision to curb the sliding The study opens as a conventional biography wage scale in 1984 and to delete the hammer, with Lagorio’s birth in Trieste on November 9, 1925, sickle, rising sun, and book from the party’s logo in and the subsequent relocation of his family to 1987 to accentuate an interclassist and reformist Florence. The initial chapter, on Lagorio’s youth, is approach to politics, along with another referen‐ followed by five other sections about his adher‐ dum that repealed multiple preference votes in the ence to socialism, handling of Florence’s municip‐ elections for the Chamber of Deputies in 1991. al administration, presidency of Tuscany, and These, however, are not enticing themes for terms at the Defense as well as Tourism and Show Argenteri. In fact, the focus of her study is the de‐ Business Ministries. Within this context, Argenteri mise of the Socialist Party, the topic of chapter 7, a stresses Lagorio’s energy in tackling with the 1966 series of events that covers about a third of the flood that hit Florence, successful efforts in build‐ book but occurred after Lagorio had already been ing an administrative apparatus for the Tuscany excluded from the inner circle of the Socialist lead‐ region almost from nothing, active support for the ership and left politically “idle” at such an “ele‐ deployment of BGM-109 G “Gryphon” missiles in phant cemetery” as the European Parliament (p. Italy more inside the directorate of the Socialist 62). Consequently, when it comes to the core of the Party than as a member of the cabinet, tensions volume, Lagorio is less a protagonist of Italian with President of the Republic Sandro Pertini over politics to examine than an eyewitness to and per‐ the delay in the mobilization of the army to rescue ceptive commentator on the fall of the Socialist survivors after an earthquake stroke the area of Party to whom Argenteri resorts mostly as a Irpinia in 1980, and promotion of a tax shelter for source of insider knowledge. financial investments in the field of performing In retrospect, Lagorio has argued that politi‐ arts. cized judges and infighting among Socialists de‐ Readers might expect supplementary details livered the coup de grace to a party that the ex‐ about a few relevant issues: the maneuverings that haustion of the propulsive impulse of reformism let a former regional administrator become the had already distanced from civil society.[3] Argen‐ first Socialist minister of defense in Italy, while teri develops this latter part of Lagorio’s thesis and détente was yielding to a resumption of the arms emphasizes both the failure of Craxi’s project of race during the Cold War; Rome’s participation in modernization and the Socialists’ inability to a peacekeeping force for Lebanon in 1982 and the profit from the 1989 collapse of communism. She ensuing tension with the United States and France, contends that massive payoffs, embezzlements, 2 H-Net Reviews and malfeasance only added to the previous invol‐ passing sharp judgments on a few protagonists ution of a party that little by little renounced its and co-stars of recent Italian politics, without the progressive and laborite ideals to turn itself into a constraints of a time frame, than in rescuing machine that occupied power, eager for spoils at Lagorio from some degrees of academic oblivion. all levels, and enabled some of its leaders to gain However, in spite of these drawbacks and the au‐ personal wealth. In Argenteri’s opinion, before thor’s sparkling but often idiosyncratic style of Craxi’s rise to power the Socialist Party “had all the writing, Argenteri’s study makes a valuable contri‐ virtues of the Communist Party without the latter’s bution to highlight Lagorio’s career and offers bet‐ flaws. With Craxi, the Socialist Party acquired the ter insights into his role in Italian politics than co‐ vices of the Christian Democracy and got rid of the eval narratives and posthumous commemorative Socialist doctrine” (p. 264). accounts have previously done.[5] Overall, the Lagorio emerged unscathed from Tangento‐ book helps draw greater attention to a heretofore poli. Argenteri also reports, albeit without provid‐ overlooked mid-tier statesperson in the late years ing a specific date, that he had already conceded of Italy’s First Republic. that blatant corruption was preventing the Social‐ Notes ist Party from gaining momentum in public opin‐ [1]. See, for example, Gianni Barbacetto, La be‐ ion and at the polls even before prosecutors began atificazione di Craxi: Le falsità e i luoghi comuni sul their probes, although Lagorio was actually a late‐ leader politico che continua a dividere gli italiani comer. Argenteri herself acknowledges that, as (Milan: Chiarelettere, 2020); Mirko Crocoli, Nel soon as August 1, 1984, at the peak of Craxi’s power, nome di Craxi (Lainate: A. Car, 2020); Fabio Mar‐ Valdo Spini introduced a bill to enforce transpar‐ tini, Controvento: La vera storia di Bettino Craxi ency in public funding of political parties, which (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2020); Nicola Scan‐ probably contributed to Spini’s succeeding demo‐ zini and Roberto Giuliano, Le fake news su Bettino tion from the post of deputy secretary of the So‐ Craxi: Debito pubblico, sovranismo ed altro (Chieti: cialist Party.[4] In any case, in Argenteri’s eyes, Solfanelli, 2020); and Marcello Sorgi, Presunto Lagorio becomes the epitome of the traditional So‐ colpevole: Gli ultimi giorni di Craxi (Turin: Einaudi, cialist principles and worldview that Craxi irrepar‐ 2020). Authors include Craxi’s alleged heir appar‐ ably betrayed, dooming his party to ignominious ent, Claudio Martelli.

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