Bernardo Mattarella

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Bernardo Mattarella (Castellammare del Golfo, September 15, 1905 - (Rome, March 1, 1971) was an Italian politician for the Christian Democrat party (DC - Democrazia Cristiana). He has been Minister of Italy several times. He was the father of Piersanti Mattarella and Sergio Mattarella, who both became politicians as well.

[edit] Biography

Bernardo Mattarella was born in Castellammare del Golfo, in the province of Trapani in western Sicily in a family of humble origins. He graduated in jurisprudence in Palermo, where he lived until the Allied invasion of Sicily. He moved to Rome, where he took part in the founding of Democrazia Cristiana.

He held the position of Deputy Minister for Public Education in the governments led by Ivanoe Bonomi (1944-1945). In the June 1946 he was elected to the Italian Constituent Assembly and two years later to the new Republican Parliament. In 1953, after having been Minister of the Merchant Navy under Alcide De Gasperi's short-lived government, he became Minister of Transportations, a position he maintained until 1955. Later he was Minister of Foreign Trades and Minister of Post and Communnications.

In 1962 he was again Minister of Transportations and, in the following year, of Agriculture and Forests. In 1963-66 he was again Minister of Foreign Trades. He died in Rome in 1971.

Mattarella was rumoured to have connections with Sicilian mafia. He was among the welcoming party that met US gangster Joe Bonanno when he landed at Fiumicino airport in Rome in October 1957 for a vacation. Mattarella had grown up with Bonanno in Castellammare del Golfo.^[1] In 1967, the Anti-Mafia activist Danilo Dolci accused Mattarella of collusion with the Mafia. Mattarella reacted violently to the denuncations and succeeded in having him jailed for libel.

His son Piersanti Mattarella was killed by mafia in 1980. His assassination was probably spurred by its strong commitment against the relationships of numerous Sicilian politicians (mostly members of DC itself) with the Mafia. The Mafia felt betrayed by Mattarella who used to be responsive to Mafia interests.