Editing Mario Scelba (section)

==Early life==
Scelba was born in Caltagirone, Sicily, in 1901. His father Gaetano Scelba was a poor [[sharecropper]] on land owned by the priest Don [[Luigi Sturzo]], while his mother Maria Gambino was a [[housewife]].<ref name=tim220254>{{cite web|url=http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C860459%2C00.html |title=Italy's New Premier |access-date=2017-06-03 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719223841/http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C860459%2C00.html |archive-date=19 July 2011 }}, ''Time Magazine'', 22 February 1954</ref><ref name=tim040455>{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C866106%2C00.html |title=The Iron Sicilian |access-date=2017-06-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130071018/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C866106%2C00.html |archive-date=30 November 2010 }}, ''Time Magazine'', 4 April 1955</ref> The couple had five children, one of whom died during his young age. Scelba grew up in an observant Catholic family. At only 12 years old, he was forced to leave school to help his family's finances. In 1914, Don Sturzo took steps to guarantee an education to Scelba, who began attending the first class of the lower gymnasium in Caltagirone. The outbreak of the [[World War I]] forced the institute to suspend lessons and Scelba recovered the lost years by studying as a privatist and achieving the classical diploma in 1920. He then studied law and graduated at the [[Sapienza University of Rome]] in 1924, with a thesis on regional decentralization.<ref>[http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/mario-scelba_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ Mario Scelba – Dizionario Biografico], treccani.it</ref>

During university, he was selected by Sturzo as his private assistant and secretary. From 1919 Sturzo was in fact the leader of a [[Christian-democratic]] party, the [[Italian People's Party (1919)|Italian People's Party]] (PPI), and was one of the most important politicians in the country.<ref>[https://www.laciviltacattolica.it/articolo/luigi-sturzo-e-il-partito-popolare-italiano/ Luigi Sturzo e il Partito Popolare Italiano]</ref> When the [[fascist]] dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] rose to power, suppressing all the other parties, including the PPI, Sturzo was forced into exile, while Scelba remained in Rome as his informer. During the regime, Scelba wrote for the newspaper ''Il Popolo'' ("The People"); when it was banned by the [[Italian fascist]] regime in 1925, he founded a clandestine weekly newspaper known as ''L'idea popolare'' ("People's Idea").<ref>[https://issuu.com/istitutoluigisturzo/docs/04-2._luigi_sturzo_-_mario_scelba._ Luigi Sturzo – Mario Scelba : Carteggio (1923–1956)]</ref> In these years, Scelba started his career as a lawyer in the law firm of Filippo Del Giudice, and when the latter was forced to leave the country to save from fascist repression, Scelba inherited his customers.<ref>[https://digilander.libero.it/storiadimenticata/scelba.htm Mario Scelba – Siti personali], Libero</ref>

In 1929 Scelba married Nerina Palestini, from San Benedetto del Tronto, from whom he had a daughter Maria Luisa, born in 1930.<ref>[https://www.alinari.it/it/dettaglio/TEA-S-000741-0001 Mario Scelba con la moglie ad un ricevimento]</ref>