Quick Facts
Biography
Fernando Tambroni Armaroli (25 November 1901 – 18 February 1963) was a right-wing Italian politician of the Christian Democratic Party. He was a lawyer, a prominent supporter of law and order policies, and for a brief time in 1960, the 36th Prime Minister of Italy. His role as prime minister is best remembered for the riots which resulted from the possibility that he might look to the Movimento Sociale Italiano for support against the parliamentary left.
Biography
Tambroni was born in Ascoli Piceno (Marche).
He was a member of the Italian Constituent Assembly and was later elected to the new Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1948-1958. In 1953, he was Minister of Merchant Marine, a position he held under two more governments until 1954. The following year, he was Minister of the Interior under the first government of Antonio Segni, being confirmed under the following ones, led by Adone Zoli and Amintore Fanfani respectively. In 1959, again under Segni, he was Minister of Economy.
In 1960, sponsored by President Giovanni Gronchi, he formed the Tambroni Cabinet and became Prime Minister. Tambroni's politics soon appeared strongly right-wing: having abandoned the alliance with the Italian Socialist Party, he formed a minority government with support from the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), liberals and monarchists.
On 21 May 1960, a rally led by Communist deputy Giancarlo Pajetta was dissolved by the police with support from the government, causing riots.
On 15 June, the Minister of Culture Umberto Tupini announced plans to censor all films with "scandalous subjects, harmful for the consciousness of Italians", including Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita.
The most controversial decision of his mandate, however, was the permission to MSI to hold its national congress in Genoa, one of the capitals of Italian Resistance against Fascism. This move was considered a further and unacceptable opening to the former Fascists of the doors of the government. On 30 June 1960, a large demonstration summoned by the left-wing CGIL trade union and by other leftist forces in the streets of Genoa was heavily suppressed by the Italian police. Other popular demonstrations in Reggio Emilia, Rome, Palermo, Catania, Licata again saw violent intervention by the police, causing several deaths. Eventually, after grievances coming also from some sectors of Democrazia Cristiana, Tambroni was forced to resign, having been in charge only 116 days.
He died a few years later in Rome due to cardiac arrest.