Adone Zoli

Adone Zoli was born in Cesena, Emilia-Romagna, in 1887. He grew up in a wealthy and Catholic observant family.Gabriella Tronconi Medri, Adone Zoli, Personaggi della vita pubblica di Forlì e circondario, Urbino, Edizioni Quattroventi, 1996 In 1907, he graduated in law at the University of Bologna, starting a career as a lawyer first in Genoa, then in Bologna and finally in Florence, where he met Tommaso Brunelli, a Catholic lawyer, elected deputy from Italian People's Party (PPI) in 1919, who greatly influenced Zoli's political ideology.Pierandrea Vanni, Adone Zoli, in I Grandi di Romagna, Bologna, Edizioni Il Resto del Carlino, 1990

During these years he married Lucia Zoli, his cousin, with whom he had three children.[http://www.romagnanoi.it/news/forli/455871/Adone-Zoli-in-mostra-al-Senato.html Adone Zoli in mostra al Senato]

Adone Zoli fought in the World War I as a volunteer, taking part in the battle of Caporetto and obtained, at the end of the conflict, two crosses for war merit and one for military honor.Guido Gambetta and Salvatore Mirabella, Adone Zoli. Un padre della Repubblica, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2010 After the war he participated in various congresses of the PPI founded by Don Luigi Sturzo. In 1920, he became a member of party's national council, while in October 1921 he was appointed in the national direction, a position that he held until the dissolution of the party in 1926, imposed by the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. For all his political career, Zoli remained strong anti-fascist.Giulio Conticelli, Adone Zoli. Cristiano, patriota, avvocato, Florence, Polistampa, 2014

In 1943, he joined the partisan resistance by setting up the anti-fascist committee in Florence and later joining the National Liberation Committee (CLN), a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the resistance movement fighting against the German occupation of Italy in the aftermath of the Armistice of Cassibile.{{Cite web |url=http://www.anpi.it/storia/140/comitato-di-liberazione-nazionale-cln |title=Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale – CLN |access-date=6 April 2020 |archive-date=28 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128084947/http://www.anpi.it/storia/140/comitato-di-liberazione-nazionale-cln |url-status=dead }}

In November 1943 he was arrested with two of his children and sentenced to death by the Nazis, but he was freed by his partisan comrades. In February 1944, he avoided another attempt to arrest him, but his wife and three children were arrested instead.[https://www.anpi.it/donne-e-uomini/645/adone-zoli Donne e Uomini della Resistenza: Adone Zoli], ANPI

In December 1943, he was among the founders of the Christian Democracy, the new centrist party, heir of the PPI, led by Alcide De Gasperi.{{Cite journal|last=Einaudi|first=Mario|date=1947|title=Christian Democracy in Italy|journal=The Review of Politics|volume=9|issue=1|pages= 16–33|jstor=1404299|doi=10.1017/S003467050003792X}} After the liberation from the Nazis, Zoli served deputy mayor of Florence in the municipal government chaired by Gaetano Pieraccini.Alberto Mazzuca, Penne al vetriolo. I grandi giornalisti raccontano la Prima Repubblica, Argelato, Minerva Edizioni, 2017

On 25 September 1945, Zoli was appointed in the National Council,[http://www.senato.it/leg/03/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00009477.htm Adone Zoli – Senato della Repubblica], senato.it an unelected provisional legislative assembly set up in the Kingdom of Italy after the end of World War II.[https://storia.camera.it/legislature/leg-transizione-consulta_nazionale#nav Consulta Nazionale – Portale Storico], camera.it He remained in office until 1 June 1946, when new election were held, in which Zoli decided not to run.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A Data Handbook, p1047 {{ISBN|978-3-8329-5609-7}}

After the 1948 general election, Zoli was elected to the Senate of the Republic for the constituency of Florence, with nearly 70,000 votes.[https://elezionistorico.interno.gov.it/index.php?tpel=S&dtel=18/04/1948&tpa=I&tpe=L&lev0=0&levsut0=0&lev1=9&levsut1=1&lev2=3&levsut2=2&ne1=9&ne2=903&es0=S&es1=S&es2=S&ms=S Elezioni del 1948: Collegio di Firenze], Ministero dell'Interno

File:Adone Zoli 1948.jpg

As a close ally of De Gasperi, in July 1951 he was appointed Minister of Grace and Justice in De Gasperi's seventh government.[http://www.governo.it/it/i-governi-dal-1943-ad-oggi/i-legislatura-8-maggio-1948-4-aprile-1953/governo-de-gasperi-vii/3226 Governo De Gasperi VII], governo.it

During his ministry he worked to improve conditions of prisoners, which were still subjected to fascist laws and regulations, in accordance with the principle of the re-educational function of the penalty, expressed by the new republican constitution.[https://www.altalex.com/documents/news/2017/09/19/essay-competition-elsa-teramo-2017La funzione rieducativa della pena]{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Altalex Zoli implemented important measures that included the abolition of the head shaving for prisoners sentenced to short penalties and the exemption from the obligation to wear prison clothes for prisoners. He also established that the condemned should be called by prison officers by name and no longer by matriculation number.[https://www.giustizia.it/giustizia/it/mg_1_12_1.page;jsessionid=KrMXfa5VDI-IpWYWi4-RwFNY?facetNode_1=4_15&facetNode_2=0_2&contentId=SPS959271&previsiousPage=mg_1_12 La dignità della persona in carcere], giustizia.it He also increased the courses of education, cinematographic and theatrical performances, and allowed to keep in the cell the necessary to write, as well as the photographs of their families.[https://www.mondodiritto.it/dottrina/diritto-penale/diritto-penale-i-diritti-del-detenuto-previsti-dall-ordinamento-italiano-analisi-e-limiti-alla-luce-delle-recenti-riforme.html I diritti del detenuto previsti dall'ordinamento italiano: analisi e limiti alla luce delle recenti riforme], Mondo Diritto

In addition, Zoli supported the plan, started by communist leader, Palmiro Togliatti, to grant amnesty for crimes committed "for political ends" from the March on Rome to 18 June 1946. This law, approved by parliament in 1953, increased Zoli's popularity.{{cite news |last=Armellini |first=Arvise |date=5 April 2016|title=New Study: Number of Casualties in Nazi Massacres in Italy Nearly Double as Previously Believed |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/new-study-22-000-killed-in-massacres-in-nazi-occupied-italy-1.5427492|work=Haaretz |access-date=28 November 2018 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.academia.edu/5754607 |title=Book Review by Sönke Neitzel in War in History: Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Partisanenkrieg: Italien 1943-1945 |last=Neitzel |first=Sönke|author-link=Sönke Neitzel|publisher=University of Cologne|access-date=28 November 2018 }}

The 1953 general election was characterised by changes in the electoral law. Even if the general structure remained uncorrupted, the government introduced a superbonus of two-thirds of seats in the House for the coalition which would obtain at-large the absolute majority of votes. The change was strongly opposed by the opposition parties as well as DC's smaller coalition partners, who had no realistic chance of success under this system. The new law was called the Scam Law by its detractors,Also its parliamentarian exam had a disruptive effect: "Among the iron pots of political forces that faced in the Cold War, Senate cracked as earthenware pot": {{cite journal|last1=Buonomo|first1=Giampiero|title=Come il Senato si scoprì vaso di coccio|journal=L'Ago e Il Filo|date=2014|url=https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89210209|access-date=6 April 2020|archive-date=24 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324160801/https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89210209|url-status=dead}} including some dissidents of minor government parties who founded special opposition groups to deny the artificial landslide to Christian Democracy.

The campaign of the opposition to the Scam Law achieved its goal. The government coalition won 49.9% of national vote, just a few thousand votes of the threshold for a supermajority, resulting in an ordinary proportional distribution of the seats. Technically, the government won the election, winning a clear working majority of seats in both houses. But frustration with the failure to win a supermajority caused significant tensions in the leading coalition. De Gasperi was forced to resign by the Parliament on 2 August.{{cite journal|last1=Buonomo|first1=Giampiero|title=Come il Senato si scoprì vaso di coccio|journal=L'Ago e Il Filo|date=2014|url=https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89210209|access-date=6 April 2020|archive-date=24 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324160801/https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89210209|url-status=dead}} On 17 August, President Einaudi appointed Giuseppe Pella as new prime minister and Zoli was not confirmed at the Ministry of Justice.[http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2018/05/12/news/matterella_cita_einaudi_e_l_incarico_a_pella_fu_il_primo_governo_del_presidente-196214438/?ref=RHPPLF-BL-I0-C8-P1-S1.8-T2 Mattarella cita Einaudi e l'incarico a Pella: fu il primo governo del presidente]

File:Leone Zoli.jpg in 1957]]

On 12 January 1954, after only five months in power, Prime Minister Pella was forced to resign, after a strong confrontation with many members of DC, regarding the appointment of Salvatore Aldisio as new Minister of Agriculture.[https://storia.camera.it/governi/i-governo-pella Governo Pella], Governo.it[https://www.corriere.it/romano/08-07-31/01.spm Cattolico e risorgimentale, Pella e il caso di Trieste] President Luigi Einaudi appointed Amintore Fanfani as new head of the government.[http://www.governo.it/it/i-governi-dal-1943-ad-oggi/ii-legislatura-25-giugno-1953-14-marzo-1958/governo-fanfani/3222 Governo Fanfani I], governo.it Fanfani formed a one-party government composed only by members of the Christian Democracy and Zoli was appointed Minister of Finance.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090813224213/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,860367,00.html "Roman Circus"]. Time. 8 February 1954.[https://storia.camera.it/governi/i-governo-fanfani I Governo Fanfani], camera.it

However, the cabinet lasted only 23 days when it failed to win approval in the Parliament, being rejected by the Chamber of Deputies with 260 votes in favor, 303 votes against and 12 abstentions out of 563 present. On 10 February, Mario Scelba sworn in as new prime minister.Il nuovo ministero Scelba ha prestato giuramento al Quirinale, in "La Nuova Stampa", 11 February 1954, page 1 Fanfani's first government was the shortest-lived cabinet in the history of the Italian Republic. Since De Gasperi's retirement in 1953 Fanfani emerged as the most probable successor, a role confirmed by his appointment as party secretary in June 1954, a position that he would held until March 1959.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090813222751/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,860962,00.html "Young Initiative"]. Time. 12 July 1954.

In April 1955, Giovanni Gronchi was elected new president of the Republic.[http://205.188.238.109/time/printout/0,8816,861442,00.html "Danger on the Left"]{{Dead link|date=June 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Time. 9 May 1955. After the election, a political crisis between Prime Minister Scelba and DC's leader Fanfani broke out. In July 1955, Scelba resigned from the office, and Segni received the task of forming a new cabinet.[http://www.governo.it/it/i-governi-dal-1943-ad-oggi/ii-legislatura-25-giugno-1953-14-marzo-1958/governo-segni/3220 Governo Segni I], governo.it Zoli was appointed Minister of Budget.[http://www.dellarepubblica.it/ii-legislatura-i-segni Il governo Segni I]

In May 1957, the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) withdrew its support to the government and on 6 May, Segni resigned.[https://storia.camera.it/governi/i-governo-segni I Governo Segni], camera.it

File:Adone Zoli 2.jpg]]

President Gronchi gave Zoli the task of forming a new cabinet, and on 20 May, Zoli sworn in as new head of government.[https://storia.camera.it/governi/i-governo-zoli Governo Zoli], camera.it He formed a one-party cabinet, composed only by members of the Christian Democracy, in which he kept the ad interim Ministry of Budget.[http://www.senato.it/leg/02/BGT/Schede/Governi/0044_S.htm Composizione del Governo Zoli], senato.it

On 4 June 1957, the government obtained the confidence vote in the Senate, with 132 votes in favor and 93 against, and on 7 June in the Chamber of Deputies, with 305 votes in favor, 255 against and 11 abstentions.[http://www.dellarepubblica.it/ii-legislatura-i-zoli II Legislature: 25 June 1953 – 11 June 1958] The government externally supported by the Italian Liberal Party (PLI), the Italian Republican Party (PRI), the PSDI, the monarchist parties and also by the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI); it was the first time in republican history, that the MSI supported a government.[https://www.corriere.it/politica/cards/governo-presidente-che-cos-precedenti-pella-zoli-ciampi-monti/adone-zoli.shtml Governo del presidente, che cos’è. I precedenti di Pella, Zoli, Ciampi e Monti], Corriere della Sera The support of the neo-fascists raised many criticisms and Zoli then simply declared that MSI votes were not necessary for the majority.[https://www.galileumautografi.com/autore.php?id=2069&nome=zoli-adone Zoli Adone], galielumautografi.com The next day, however, he realized that the count was wrong and that the MSI's support had actually been decisive. Then Zoli, a staunch anti-fascist, resigned on the following 10 June, but he was invited by President Gronchi to withdraw his resignation and to remain in power until the natural dissolution of the Italian Parliament in 1958.Giovanni Di Capua, Mario Martinelli nel secolo delle contraddizioni, Rubbettino Editore, 2004, page 176

During his premiership, the Parliament approved a law in October 1957 that extended compulsory social security insurance to small farmers, sharecroppers and tenant farmers, while a law of 13 March 1958 extended pension insurance to fishermen.Growth to Limits: The Western European Welfare States Since World War II Volume 4 edited by Peter Flora Zoli also approved the request of the MSI to bury the body of Benito Mussolini in Predappio, his hometown; a request that was also supported by Pietro Nenni, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), who was a personal friend of Mussolini during the 1910s. The Duce's body was buried in Predappio on 30 August 1957.Alberto Mazzuca and Luciano Foglietta, Mussolini e Nenni amici nemici, Argelato, Minerva Edizioni, 2015

In the 1958 general election, the Christian Democracy gained 42.4% of votes, nearly doubling Palmiro Togliatti's Communist Party, which arrived second. However, the poor results of the other small centrist and secular parties kept the same problems of political instability within the centrist coalition, which characterised the previous legislature.[https://elezionistorico.interno.gov.it/index.php?tpel=C&dtel=25/05/1958&tpa=I&tpe=A&lev0=0&levsut0=0&es0=S&ms=S Elezioni del 1958], Ministero dell'Interno As he promised few months before, Zoli resigned after the new general election and, on 1 July 1958, Amintore Fanfani sworn in as new Prime Minister at the head of a coalition government with the PSDI, and a case-by-case support of the PRI.[http://www.senato.it/leg/03/BGT/Schede/Governi/0045_M.htm Governo Fanfani II], senato.it

Adone Zoli died in Rome on 20 February 1960, at the age of 72. He was buried in the family grave in the cemetery of San Cassiano in Predappio, a few meters from the crypt of Mussolini.[http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/adone-zoli_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ Adone Zoli], Enciclopedia Treccani

In 1963, the President of the Republic Giuseppe Saragat recognized, with a presidential decree, the "Adone Zoli Center for Economic and Social Policy", an institute founded in memory of the former prime minister.[http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110217044559/http://www.fondazionezoli.org Fondazione Zoli]

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• [http://www.senato.it/leg/01/BGT/Schede/Attsen/00009477.htm Adone Zoli – Senate of the Republic]
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Category:1887 births

Category:1960 deaths

Category:People from Cesena

Category:Italian People's Party (1919) politicians

Category:Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians

Category:Prime ministers of Italy

Category:Ministers of finance of Italy

Category:Ministers of justice of Italy

Category:Italian Roman Catholics

Category:Senators of Legislature I of Italy

Category:Senators of Legislature II of Italy

Category:Senators of Legislature III of Italy

Category:Politicians of Emilia-Romagna

Category:Italian resistance movement members

Category:University of Bologna alumni

Category:Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany