Pier Luigi Romita

Pier Luigi Romita
Romita in 1983
Minister for the Coordination of Community Policies
In office 23 July 1989 – 28 June 1992
Prime Minister	Giulio Andreotti
Preceded by	Antonio Mario La Pergola
Succeeded by	Raffaele Costa
Minister for the Budget and Economic Planning
In office 30 July 1984 – 18 April 1987
Prime Minister	Bettino Craxi
Preceded by	Pietro Longo
Succeeded by	Giovanni Goria
Minister for Regional Affairs
In office 4 August 1983 – 30 July 1984
Prime Minister	Bettino Craxi
Preceded by	Fabio Fabbri
Succeeded by	Carlo Vizzini
Minister for Scientific and Technological Research
In office 18 October 1980 – 26 June 1981
Prime Minister	Arnaldo Forlani
Preceded by	Vincenzo Balzamo
Succeeded by	Carlo Vizzini
In office 26 July 1972 – 8 July 1973
Prime Minister	Giulio Andreotti
Preceded by	Fiorentino Sullo
Succeeded by	Pietro Bucalossi
Secretary of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party
In office October 1976 – October 1978
Preceded by	Giuseppe Saragat
Succeeded by	Pietro Longo
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 12 June 1958 – 15 April 1994
Constituency	Single National Constituency (1958–1983; 1992–1994) Cuneo (1983–1992)
Personal details
Born	(1924-07-27)27 July 1924 Turin, Italy
Died	23 March 2003(2003-03-23) (aged 78) Milan, Italy
Political party	PSI (1942–1947; 1989–1994) PSDI (1947–1989) UDS (1989) SI (1994–1997) PDS (1997–1998) DS (1998–2003)
Alma mater	Polytechnic University of Milan

Pier Luigi Romita (27 July 1924 – 23 March 2003) was an Italian politician who was several times a minister of the Italian Republic.

Biography

Romita was born in Turin, the son of Giuseppe Romita, a long-time member of the Italian Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano; PSI) and Minister of the Interior in 1946. During the Fascist period, he followed his father into confinement on the islands of Ustica and Ponza, and then at Veroli. In 1933 the family moved to Rome.

In 1942, aged 19, he entered the PSI and took part in the Italian resistance movement, as a member of the partisan bands operating in the Colli Albani. In 1947 he graduated in engineering and later taught Hydraulics in the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Milan. In 1958, after the death of his father, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano; PSDI), where he remained until the end of the XI legislature in 1994.

Romita's first government positions were as undersecretary for Public Works (1963–1966), Education (1966–1968 and 1970–1972) and the Interior (1968–1969). He was subsequently the Minister of Scientific Research on three occasions, in the Andreotti II (1972–1973), Forlani (1980–1981) and Fanfani V (1982–1983) Cabinets. He was also Minister of Regional Affairs (1983–1984) and for the Budget (1984–1987) respectively in the first and second Craxi governments.

Romita was national secretary of the PSDI from 1976 to 1978, succeeding Giuseppe Saragat. In early 1989 he left the party and, together with Pietro Longo, founded the Movement of Unity and Socialist Democracy (Movimento di Unità e Democrazia Socialista; UDS), which merged later that same year with the PSI. He was Minister of Community Policies in the Andreotti VII Cabinet. After the disbandment of the PSI in 1994, he entered the newly formed Italian Socialists (SI) and then, from 1997, the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS).

Romita died in Milan in 2003.