Luigi Gasparotto

Luigi Gasparotto
Minister of Defence
In office 4 February 1947 – 1 June 1947
Prime Minister	Alcide De Gasperi
Preceded by	Cipriano Facchinetti (War) Giuseppe Micheli (Navy) Mario Cingolani (Air Force)
Succeeded by	Mario Cingolani
Minister for Post-War Assistance
In office 10 December 1945 – 13 July 1946
Prime Minister	Alcide De Gasperi
Preceded by	Emilio Lussu
Succeeded by	Emilio Sereni
Minister of Air Force
In office 14 January 1945 – 21 June 1945
Prime Minister	Ivanoe Bonomi
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Minister of War
In office 4 July 1921 – 26 February 1922
Prime Minister	Ivanoe Bonomi
Preceded by
Succeeded by
show Member of the Parliament Member of the Senate In office 8 May 1948 – 24 June 1953 Constituency Senator by right Member of the Constituent Assembly In office 25 June 1946 – 31 January 1948 Constituency Single national constituency Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Kingdom of Italy In office 27 novembre 1913 – 9 December 1928 Constituency Milan
Personal details
Born	(1873-05-31)31 May 1873 Sacile, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
Died	29 June 1954(1954-06-29) (aged 81) Cantello, Lombardy, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Political party	Labour Democratic Party
Alma mater	University of Padua
Profession	Lawyer

Luigi Gasparotto (31 May 1873 – 29 June 1954) was an Italian lawyer and politician.

He served several times as Minister and was one of the founders of the Labour Democratic Party. He was also president of Fiera Milano.

Biography[]

Gasparotto was born in Sacile, Province of Pordenone. His father Leopoldo Gasparotto, a small landowner and Garibaldian, educated him to democratic and secular ideals. Moving to Milan, he practiced the profession of lawyer and frequented the Lombard Democratic Society. Since 1897 he adhered to Freemasonry, attending the Milanese institution.^[1]

He opposed to the Italian military in intervention in Libia in 1911-12 and was elected deputy of the Kingdom of Italy in Milan in 1913.^[1] Combatant of the First World War, he was decorated with three silver medals for military valor. After the war he was among the founders of the National Combatants Association and promoted a movement of ex-combatants called "National Renewal", of radical inspiration with which he was reconfirmed in the Chamber of Deputies in 1919, and again in June 1921 with Social Democracy.

He was Minister of War in July 1921 in the Bonomi I government, during which he promoted the rite of the Unknown Soldier, until February 1922. Elected deputy again in 1924, he was vice president of the Chamber. Although he did not adhere to the Aventine Secession against Mussolini he was part of the opposition in the courtroom and resigned as vice president in December 1926. After the legislature ended in 1928, he withdrew from political life.

In the transitional constitutional period he was Minister of Air Force from January to June 1945. At the end of the Second World War, he was called to the National Council and in December 1945 he was Minister of post-war assistance in the 1st De Gasperi government until July 1946. Elected Deputy to the Constituent Assembly in June 1946 for the National Democratic Union, he was the first minister of defence, born with the incorporation of three ministries (War, Navy and Air Force) into the III De Gasperi government (February – May 1947).

Senator of the Republic by appointment, in the I legislature (1948), after the resignation of Giuseppe Paratore he was proposed to the Presidency of the Senate, but he renounced the candidacy shortly before the vote. He was vice-president of the mixed group until 1953.

He died on 29 June 1954 in his country house in Cantello.^[2]

References[]