Alessandro (Sandro) Pertini (September 25, 1896 - February 24, 1990) was an Italian politician.

Born in Stella (Savona) as the son of a well to do landowner, Alberto, he studied at a Salesian college in Varazze and did his high school studies at the "Chiabrera" liceo in Savona.

His philosophy teacher was Adelchi Baratono , a socialist reformist who contributed to his approach to socialism probably introduced him to the circles of ligurian working movements. Pertini obtained a law degree from the university of Genova .

He was not an intervenist during World War I, but he participated as lieutenant and gained some medals as he fought bravely and courageously. In 1918 he joined the PSU (Unitarian Socialist Party), then he established in Florence where he also graduated in political science with a thesis entitled La Cooperazione (Cooperation) in 1924. There he also got into touch with people like Gaetano Salvemini, Rosselli brothers, Ernesto Rossi. Pertini was beaten by Fascist squads on several occasion, but never lost faith in his ideals.

After Giacomo Matteotti's assassination in Rome, he enhanced his struggle against fascism. In 1926 he was condemmned to internment but he succeeded in hiding. Later he organized and accompanied Filippo Turati 's escape to France, who ws a prominent socialist. Pertini remained there up to 1926 working as a mason. On his return to Italy he was arrested in Pisa and sentenced to ten years of imprisonment.

In 1935 he was interned in Ponza, an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he remained up to 1943, suffering from severe disease — while never applying for mercy — a month after Mussolini's arrest. Once freed, he plunged into the struggle against the Germans, who had invaded Italy in the meantime. Arrested by the Nazis, he was sentenced to death but freed by a partisan blitz.

Meanwhile Mussolini had created the RSI (Italian Social Republic) in Northern Italy, where Nazi oppression was prominent. Pertini went north to organize partisan war as a directive member of PSU.

After April 25, 1945 (the end of the war in Italy) he was elected to the first parliament of the Italian Republic(the parliament which created the modern Italian constitution and thus was called La Costituente). In the postwar era he was a prominent member of the directive board of PSU-PSI.

In spite of his feeling toward the Communist party, Pertini was ever jealous of independence of PSU. He criticized any kind of colonialism as well as any kind of corruption in the Italian State and within the socialist party, where he kept an independent political position

He was appointend president of the Camera dei Deputati (one of the two Chambers of Parliament) in 1968 and in 1978 President of the Italian Republic, the highest office in the Republic. As President he succeeded in regaining the trust of Italians towards the State and institutions. During the BR terrorism period of anni di piombo (years of lead) Pertini was a strong defender of the institutions he represented. His death in Rome left a big void in the heart of many Italians as he was well loved by the whole population who admired him for his moral texture and outspoken way of treating both moral as well as political questions.

External link

• A biography of Pertini from the Associazione Nazionale Sandro Pertini