Bernardo Mattarella
Bernardo Mattarella (september 15, 1905 - March 1, 1971) was an Italian politician which was several times Minister of Italy for the party of Christian Democracy (Democrazia Cristiana, DC). He was father to Santi and Sergio Mattarella, both politician.
Biography
Bernardo Mattarella was born in Castellammare del Golfo, in the province of Trapani western Sicily, to a family of humble origins. He graduated in jurisprudence in Palermo, where he lived until the Allied invasion of Sicily; he thenceforth lived in Rome, where he took part to the founding of Democrazia Cristiana.
He held the position of sottosegretario to Public Education in the governments led by Ivanoe Bonomi (1944-1945). In the June 1946 he was elected to the Italian Constituent Assembly and, two years, later to the new Republican Parliament. In 1953, after having been Minister of the Merchant Navy under Alcide De Gasperi's short-lived government, he became Minister of Transportations, a position he mantained until 1955. Later he was Minister of Foreign Trades and Minister of Post and Communnications.
In 1962 he was again Minister of Transportations and, in the following year, of Agriculture and Forests. In 1963-66 he was again Minister of Foreign Trades.
He died in Rome in 1971.
Mattarella was rumoured to have connections with Sicilian mafia. His son Piersanti was killed by mafia in 1980, probably as retaliation for his abandon of the family support to criminality affairs.