Editing Ferruccio Parri (section)

==Biography==
Parri was born in [[Pinerolo]], [[Piedmont]]. He served in [[World War I]], when he was wounded four times and received four decorations.<ref name=tim020745/> In the final stages of the war he worked as a staff officer on the planning of the [[battle of Vittorio Veneto]]. After the war he graduated in literature and became a teacher in Milan and an editor for the ''[[Corriere della Sera]]''.<ref name=dcd82>{{cite thesis
|author=Douglass Charles Day|title=The Shaping of Postwar Italian Politics: Italy 1945-1948|location=The University of Chicago|page=102|year=1982
|degree=PhD|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303267078|id={{ProQuest|303267078}}|isbn=979-8-205-08303-4}}</ref> He left the newspaper in 1925, after it was taken over by the Fascist government,<ref name=dcd82/> and had to quit his teaching job because he refused to join the [[National Fascist Party]].

===Resistance to Fascism===
He became active against [[Benito Mussolini]]'s [[Fascism|Fascist regime]] and joined [[Carlo Rosselli|Carlo]] and [[Nello Rosselli]]'s ''[[Giustizia e Libertà]]'') ("Justice and Liberty"), the most important Italian non-Marxist anti-fascist movement.<ref name=nyt191299>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E4DC1731F93AA25751C1A96F958260 "Outside Party Lines"], by [[Alexander Stille]], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 19 December 1999.</ref>

In 1926, together with Carlo Rosselli and future President of Italy [[Sandro Pertini]] he was involved in planning and assisting the escape to France of reformist Socialist leader [[Filippo Turati]]. For this he was arrested and sentenced to ten months of imprisonment<ref name=pertini>[http://www.pertini.it/eng_bio.htm "Biography of Sandro Pertini"], Associazione Nazionale Sandro Pertini</ref> and then to five years of internal exile to the islands of [[Ustica]] and [[Lipari]] and to [[Vallo della Lucania]]. In 1930 he was again banished for five years together with other leaders of ''Giustizia e Libertà''.<ref name=parri>{{in lang|it}} [http://www.storiaxxisecolo.it/antifascismo/biografie%20antifascisti5.html "Biography of Parri"] on Antifascismo.</ref>

Parri remained in contact with ''Giustizia e Libertà'', and in 1942 founded the [[Action Party (Italy)|Action Party]], an anti-fascist [[Liberal socialism|liberal socialist]] movement that sought to pair [[social justice]] and respect for [[civil liberty|civil liberties]]. In September 1943, after the [[Armistice of Cassibile|armistice between Italy and the Allied powers]] and the [[Operation Achse|German occupation of Italy]], he was among the people indicated by anti-fascist parties to take a leading role in the [[Italian resistance movement]]. Living underground in Nazi-occupied Northern Italy, he became a member of the [[National Liberation Committee]]<ref name=jemiller99>{{cite journal|last=Miller|first=James Edward|title=Who chopped down that cherry tree? The Italian Resistance in history and politics, 1945–1998|journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies|year=1999|volume=4|issue=1|pages=37–54|doi=10.1080/13545719908454992}}</ref> and deputy commander of the main group of [[Partisan (military)|partisan]] forces, the ''[[Corpo Volontari della Libertà]]''.

He was arrested in Milan in January 1945 by the [[Waffen SS]] during a routine operation. He was held prisoner until March when he was released as part of [[Operation Sunrise (World War II)|Operation Sunrise]] – a series of secret negotiations between [[Allen Dulles]], head of the U.S. [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) and representatives of the German Wehrmacht command in Northern Italy. The release of Parri was requested by the OSS as evidence of good faith and the ability to act.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080312075822/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol7no2/html/v07i2a07p_0001.htm Intelligence cables covering the capitulation of the Nazi armies in northern Italy], Center for the Study of Intelligence</ref><ref>[http://stephenhalbrook.com/law_review_articles/sunrise.pdf "Operation Sunrise: America's OSS, Swiss Intelligence, and the German Surrender 1945"], by Stephen P. Halbrook in "Operation Sunrise". Atti del convegno internazionale (Locarno, 2 maggio 2005), a cura di Marino Viganò - Dominic M. Pedrazzini (Lugano 2006), pp. 103-30.</ref> He returned in time to take part in the final phase of the resistance and in the general insurrection in April.

By the time the war ended the ''Giustizia e Libertà'' Brigades, the military arm of the Action Party, were the second largest partisan units, accounting for about 20% of all fighters of the Italian resistance movement.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Le formazioni GL nella resistenza. Documenti |publisher=Franco Angeli |year=1985 |location=Milan |pages=395 |language=it}}</ref>

[[File:Liberazione-di-milano_6_maggio.gif|thumb|left|Liberation parade in Milan on 6 May 1945. Parri is in the front row, third from the left.]]

===Prime Minister of Italy===
After the end of [[World War II]], he was appointed leader of a government supported, among the others, by the Action Party, [[Democrazia Cristiana|Christian Democracy]] (''Democrazia Cristiana''; DC), the [[Italian Communist Party]] (''Partito Comunista Italiano''; PCI), the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (''Partito Socialista Italiano''; PSI) and the [[Italian Liberal Party]] (''Partito Liberale Italiano''; PLI). A centrist, he had been chosen as the compromise leader of a compromise Cabinet. He was also the Minister of the Interior (in charge of the police).<ref name=tim020745/> When the Liberals withdrew their support from the coalition government, Parri resigned from his position.<ref name=tim031245>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111221235112/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,852489,00.html "Split"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 3 December 1945.</ref>

At the time, Parri warned: "Beware of civil war&nbsp;... of reopening the door to fascism.&nbsp;... There are rumors that Washington and London have no trust in me. The real reason for this lack of trust is that Italy has only a fragile front of antifascism.&nbsp;... I hope my successors will follow the only worthy policy for Italy: left of center".<ref name=tim031245/>

===In Parliament===
In spite of the wartime strength of ''Giustizia e libertà'' the Action Party quickly faded from the Italian political scene, winning 1.46% in the [[1946 Italian general election|1946 Constituent Assembly election]]. Parri, along with [[Ugo La Malfa]], left the party shortly before the election to form the [[Republican Democratic Concentration]] (''Concentrazione Democratica Repubblicana''; CDR), which won 0.42% and elected its two most prominent members as deputies. The CDR would be absorbed the following year into the [[Italian Republican Party]] (PRI).

He became a Senator in 1948.

In 1953 Parri, who was opposed to [[1953 Italian general election#"Scam law"|recent changes]] to the election law, left the PRI to establish the short-lived [[Popular Unity (Italy, 1953)|Popular Unity]] (''Unità Popolare''; UP) with former Action Party member [[Piero Calamandrei]], with the goal of preventing the centrist coalition from winning a majority bonus of seats. The party, which failed to elect any members, was absorbed into the [[Italian Socialist Party]] in 1957.

In 1958 he was re-elected to the Senate as an independent in the Socialist party list. He proposed to form a [[Antimafia Commission|parliamentary inquiry committee]] to investigate the [[Sicilian Mafia]]. The proposal was opposed by the parliamentary majority with various arguments, and dismissed by Christian Democratic Senators [[Bernardo Mattarella]] and [[Giovanni Gioia]] as "useless".<ref name=fontanel>{{in lang|it}} L'istituzione della prima Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sulla mafia in: L'art. 41-bis l. 354/75 come strumento di lotta contro la mafia, by Elisa Fontanelli, bachelor's degree dissertation, Florence University, 2005</ref> It was finally established in 1963.

In 1963, President [[Antonio Segni]] appointed Parri [[senator for life]]. He joined the Independent Left group, and was for a long time its chairman from 1972 until his death. In March of the same year, he became the editor of the magazine ''[[L'Astrolabio]]'', in which he argued in favour of a more accomplished democracy and denounced the resurgence of [[neofascism]].<ref>{{in lang|it}} [http://www.centrostudimalfatti.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=177:ferruccio-parri&catid=14:o-q&Itemid=33 Ferruccio Parri], Centro Studi Politici e Sociali F. M. Malfatti (accessed 30 January 2011)</ref><ref>Roland Sarti ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xhoLorFC1iwC Italy: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present]'', Infobase Publishing, 2004, p.532</ref>

From 1949 until 1969 he was president of the [[Federazione italiana associazioni partigiane|Italian Federation of Partisan Associations]], an association of Resistance veterans that grouped members of ''Giustizia e Libertà'', as well as members of Socialist, Republican, and anarchist groups.

[[File:Genova-Staglieno--Tomba_di_Parri-DSCF8996.JPG|250px|thumb|left|Epigraph on the tomb of Parri in Genoa.]]

===Death===
Parri died in [[Rome]] on 8 December 1981.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 December 1981 |title=E' morto Ferruccio Parri |pages=1 |work=[[l'Unità]] |url=https://archivio.unita.news/assets/main/1981/12/09/page_001.pdf |access-date=24 October 2022}}</ref>

He once characterized himself: "I am a common man – ''uomo della strada''. I am just another guy – ''uomo qualunque''&nbsp;... I hope a typical one. My job is not only to prevent the right and left wings from exercising undue influence on the Government, but I have to think too of the enormous masses of peasants sweating in the fields under the sun, blacksmiths beating their anvils in villages, workers, men and women everywhere who have no taste for politics and are outside parties.&nbsp;... I am just a ''uomo della strada''."<ref name=tim020745>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111222001953/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,776000,00.html "Common Man"], ''Time'', 2 July 1945.</ref>