Randolfo Pacciardi (1 January 1899 - 14 April 1991) was an Italian politician, a member of the Italian Republican Party (PRI). He was also an officer who fought during World War I and in the Spanish Civil War.
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Pacciardi was born at Giuncarico, in the province of Grosseto (southern Tuscany).
In 1915 he became a member of the Italian Republican Party (PRI), and, despite being underage, he was enlisted in the Italian Army's officers school. As a Bersaglieri lieutenant, he fought during World War I, and was awarded with two silver and one bronze medals, as well as an English Military Cross.
In 1921 he graduated in jurisprudence. Later he collaborated with the newspaper L'Etruria Nuova, denouncing the increasing violences of the Fascist squads. In 1922 Pacciardi moved to Rome, where he founded the anti-fascist movement "L'Italia libera", which was suppressed in 1925. After the Fascists outlawed all the other parties, he was condemned to five years confinement, but was able to escape to Austria and then to Switzerland.
After moving to France, in 1936 he founded an Italian Antifascist Legion to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He subsequently fought at the head of the "Garibaldi" battalion in the Siege of Madrid, after which he was promoted as lieutenant colonel. Pacciardi fought against the fascist coalition in Spain until 1937. In that year, in Paris, he founded the weekly La Giovine Italia (a homage to the ideologist of the unification of Italy, Giuseppe Mazzini). In 1938 he held a series of lectures in the United States about anti-fascism in Europe. In the same year he also adhered to Masonry, and was confirmed as secretary of the PRI in exile. He returned to Italy only after the liberation of Rome in 1944. In 1945 he was again confirmed national secretary of the now re-established PRI, and the following year he was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Italy.
Pacciardi's line of collaboration with the other left parties led to the entrance of PRI in the first Republic government cabinets of Italy (1947). Pacciard resigned as PRI's secretary and became vice-Prime Minister. He was Minister of Defense from 1948 to 1953, and supported the entrance of Italy in the NATO. In the 1950s PRI followed Ugo La Malfa line to not adherence to the centre governments led by Democrazia Cristiana; when in 1963 a first centre-left government, led by DC leader Aldo Moro, was created, Pacciardi and his followers within PRI voted against support to it. Also in the wake of a scandal which had involved his previous tenure as Minister of Defense (despite later he was acquitted from any accuse), Pacciardi was expelled from PRI.
In 1964 he founded a new party, Unione Democratica per la Nuova Repubblica, a newspaper, La Folla. The line of Nuova Repubblica was similar to Charles de Gaulle's. However, the 1968 Italian election proved to be a failure for the new party, with just 100,000 votes. Pacciardi himself was not re-elected to the Italian Parliament, and was later accuse of having coup- and neofascist-oriented friendships. In 1974 he was investigated for participation in the so-called Golpe bianco of Edgardo Sogno.[1]
In 1979 he asked to be admitted back to the Republican Party, which he obtained two years later. In 1981 he founded a new magazine, L'Italia del popolo, which he directed for ten years. He died in Rome in 1991 and was buried in the communal cemetery of Grosseto.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Cipriano Facchinetti |
Italian Minister of Defense 23 May 1948 - 16 July 1953 |
Succeeded by Giuseppe Codacci Pisanelli |
| Preceded by Raffaele Rossetti |
Secretary of Italian Republican Party April 1933 – March 1934 |
Succeeded by Giuseppe Chiostergi |
| Preceded by Ottavio Abbati |
Secretary of Italian Republican Party (with Cipriano Facchinetti) July 1934 – January 1942 |
Succeeded by Mario Carrara |
| Preceded by Giovanni Conti |
Secretary of Italian Republican Party May 1945 – September 1946 |
Succeeded by Giulio Andrea Belloni |
| Preceded by Giulio Andrea Belloni |
Secretary of Italian Republican Party January 1947 – December 1947 |
Succeeded by Giulio Andrea Belloni Ugo La Malfa Oronzo Reale |