Valerio Zanone, former leader of
the Italian Liberal Party (PLI) and ex mayor of Turin, died at
his home in Rome on Thursday at the age of 79.
During the course of his long political career the liberal
from Turin also held several ministerial positions and sat in
the Lower House for five parliaments and in the Senate for one.
He served as secretary of the now defunct PLI from 1976 to
1985 and as cabinet minister in successive governments led by
Bettino Craxi, Giovanni Goria and Ciriaco De Mita between 1985
and 1989.
He can be credited with establishing the ministry for the
environment in 1986, one of the first in Europe.
He also served as minister for industry in 1986 and of
defence from 1987 to 1989.
He was elected mayor of the Piedmont regional capital in
1990 and remained in the post until 1992, when he returned to
parliament.
Following the demise of the PLI in 1994 he joined the
centre-left Olive Tree Alliance led by Romano Prodi and then the
Margherita (Daisy) party led by Francesco Rutelli.
He was not a liberal for all seasons and his last political
battle involved preventing the Rome-based cultural foundation
dedicated to the former president of the republic Luigi Einaudi
Foundation from coming under the control of ex-premier Silvio
Berlusconi and his center-right Forza Italia (FI) party.
He wanted to be remembered as "democratic, secular,
pro-European, social" and asked for his tombstone to be
inscribed with the one word 'liberal'.
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