Marcello Pera

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Marcello Pera (born January 28, 1943) is an Italian liberal philosopher and politician, linked with the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and the Radical Party, before being elected Senator for Forza Italia in the general elections of 1994. Re-elected in the 1996 and 2001, he has been a President of the Italian Senate up until 2006.

1 Career
2 Controversy
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Career

Born in Lucca, Pera graduated in accounting, and worked for the Banca Toscana and for the Camera di Commercio in Lucca. He went on to study philosophy at the University of Pisa, concentrating on the works of Karl Popper and his open society theory, and advocating these principles during the difficult 1970s, the anni di piombo. He joined the PSI as a self-designated "pragmatist", and then the Radicals as a noted partisan of Anti-clericalism. Initially, Pera called Silvio Berlusconi "a cabaretist", but joined his party in in 1994.

Pera is a regular contributor to Corriere della Sera, Il Messaggero, and La Stampa, he also wrote, together with Joseph Ratzinger, the volume Senza radici - Europa, relativismo, cristianesimo, islam ("Without Roots: Europe, Relativism, Christianity, and Islam").

[edit] Controversy

In August 2005, invited to the meeting of Communion and Liberation, he gave a controversial speech on the "crisis of the Western world" and the need to "reassert the Western values as sources of undeniable Universal principles". He expanded on the theme of immigration, calling the phenomenon "Half-casting" and arguing that:

The population of Europe is diminishing, and the gate is being opened to unchecked immigration, and it is becoming altogether half-caste.

[edit] References

Popper e la scienza su palafitte, Pera M., Laterza, Bari, 1980
Senza radici, Pera M., Ratzinger J., Mondadori, Milano 2004
Campioni d'Italia, Barbacetto G., Marco Tropea Editore, 2002
Siamo alla frutta. Ritratto di Marcello Pera, De Lucia M., Kaos Edizioni, 2005