Luigi Ciriaco De Mita (; 2 February 1928 – 26 May 2022) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Italy from April 1988 to July 1989. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), De Mita served as its secretary and leader from May 1982 until February 1989, becoming one of the most influential politicians in the country, as well as one of the most prominent members of DC's left-wing.
During his long-time career, De Mita served as Minister of Industry, Commerce, and Crafts from 1973 to 1974, Minister of Foreign Trade from 1974 to 1976, and Minister for Interventions in the South from 1976 until 1979. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies for more than 40 years between 1963 and 2008 and also member of the European Parliament. During his final years, De Mita served as mayor of his hometown Nusco from 2014 until his death in 2022.
Early life
De Mita was born in Nusco, in the Avellinese hinterland of Campania, in 1928. His father was a tailor and postman, while his mother was a housewife. After attending the classical high school in nearby Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi with excellent grades, he won a scholarship in the Augustinianum College and enrolled at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, where he graduated in law and then started working as a consultant at Enrico Mattei's Eni legal office. In 1953, De Mita was among the proponents of La Base, a leftist faction of the party, close to Giovanni Marcora. He rose through the ranks of the party, becoming a member of its national council in 1956 during the party's congress in Trento.
In the 1963 Italian general election, De Mita was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. He remained a deputy uninterruptedly until th e 1994 Italian general election. His secretariat is remembered for a rivalry with Bettino Craxi, socialist leader who in the 1980s held the office of Prime Minister for four years. Craxi had always promoted his reformist drive as opposed to the inaction of the DC, and in 1987 clashed with De Mita for the breaking of the "relay pact" (patto della staffetta), under which the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) would have had to cede the leadership of the government to the DC in the last year of the legislature. Craxi refused to do this and in 1987 a snap election was called.
In 1984, De Mita pushed the future Italian president Sergio Mattarella and Leoluca Orlando to intensify their political commitment with the task of cleaning up the Sicilian branch of the DC from Sicilian Mafia control. De Mita appointed Mattarella as extraordinary commissioner for Palermo. De Mita remained secretary of the DC until 22 February 1989, when he became president of the party, a position he held until 1992. heading a five-way coalition (Pentapartito) with DC, PSI, PSDI, PRI and PLI. Three days later, on 16 April 1988, in Forlì, Red Brigades killed Senator Roberto Ruffilli, an advisor of De Mita. The De Mita government obtained a vote of confidence from the Chamber of Deputies on 21 April, government that had as its main objective the reform of the institutions based on four urgent points: the Italian Parliament, the presidency of the Council of Ministers, local entities and the rules of procedure of the Chamber of Deputies.
In June 1988, De Mita's cabinet approved the relocation of 72 U.S. Air Force F-16 fighters to Italy, in response to Spain's request to remove them from its territory. In social policy, De Mita's time in office witnessed the passage of a law in May 1988 that introduced a new benefit for salaried workers called "benefit for the family nucleus" (assegno per il nucleo familiare), with the amount varying depending on the number of family members and the family income of the previous year. After a government crisis caused by rivalry with Craxi, De Mita resigned on 19 May 1989. He was called to form a new coalition government, but did not succeed. His government finally fell in July 1989 and was succeeded by Giulio Andreotti on 23 July.
Later political roles
left|thumb|upright|De Mita in 2010
In September 1992, De Mita was appointed chairman of the Bilateral Commission for Constitutional Reform, a position he left in March 1993 when was succeeded by Nilde Iotti. His nephew Giuseppe De Mita was member of the Chamber of Deputies between 2013 and 2018, and whose political career Ciriaco was in charge of catapulting. De Mita died on 26 May 2022, at the age of 94, while recovering from surgery for a fracture of a femur following a fall at home. His funeral was held the following day in Nusco.
Electoral history
{|class=wikitable style="width:65%; border:1px #AAAAFF solid"
|-
! width=8%|Election
! width=20%|House
! width=35%|Constituency
! width=5% colspan="2"|Party
! width=10%|Votes
! width=15%|Result
|-
! 1958
| Chamber of Deputies
| Benevento–Avellino–Salerno
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 39,431
| Not elected
|-
! 1963
| Chamber of Deputies
| Benevento–Avellino–Salerno
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 67,450
| Elected
|-
! 1968
| Chamber of Deputies
| Benevento–Avellino–Salerno
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 65,231
| Elected
|-
! 1972
| Chamber of Deputies
| Benevento–Avellino–Salerno
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 127,876
| Elected
|-
! 1976
| Chamber of Deputies
| Benevento–Avellino–Salerno
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 112,792
| Elected
|-
! 1979
| Chamber of Deputies
| Benevento–Avellino–Salerno
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 169,431
| Elected
|-
! 1983
| Chamber of Deputies
| Benevento–Avellino–Salerno
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 203,252
| Elected
|-
! 1984
| European Parliament
| Southern Italy
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 1,055,233
| Elected
|-
! 1987
| Chamber of Deputies
| Genoa–Imperia–La Spezia–Savona
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 84,726
| Elected
|-
! 1992
| Chamber of Deputies
| Benevento–Avellino–Salerno
| bgcolor="" |
| DC
| 106,819
| Elected
|-
! 1996
| Chamber of Deputies
| Mirabella Eclano
| bgcolor="" |
| PPI
| 33,326
| Elected
|-
! 1999
| European Parliament
| Southern Italy
| bgcolor="" |
| PPI
| 105,288
| Elected
|-
! 2001
| Chamber of Deputies
| Mirabella Eclano
| bgcolor="" |
| DL
| 37,504
| Elected
|-
! 2006
| Chamber of Deputies
| Campania 2
| bgcolor="" |
| DL
| –
| Elected
|-
! 2008
| Senate of the Republic
| Campania
| bgcolor="" |
| UDC
| –
| Not elected
|-
! 2009
| European Parliament
| Southern Italy
| bgcolor="" |
| UDC
| 56,967
| Elected
|-
|}
Source: Ministry of the Interior