Publio Fiori

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Publio Fiori (born 25 March 1938) is an Italian politician. He was born in Rome and graduated in jurisprudence. He became a member of Democrazia Cristiana (Italian Christian Democracy), to which he belonged for much of his political career.

In 1977 a commando of Brigate Rosse (communist terrorists) shot him at legs and thorax. Fiori is often included in the list of those belonging to Propaganda Due (P2),^[1] a Masonic lodge operating illegally (in contravention of the Italian constitution banning secret lodges, and membership of government officials in secret membership organizations) from 1976 to 1981. In 2001, however, the Court of Rome ruled out his membership of P2.^[2]

On 1 July 1992 he became undersecretary of the Ministry of Mail and Telecommunications in the Giuliano Amato cabinet, while on 6 May of the following year he was appointed as undersecretary in the Ministry of Public Health. When in 1993 Democrazia Cristiana, then being wiped out by the Tangentopoli corruption scandal, voted for an alliance with former Communist Partito Democratico della Sinistra, Fiori, traditionally tied to the right-wing of DC, abandoned the party.

In 1995 he was one of the founders of Alleanza Nazionale (AN), collecting most of the members of the former post-fascist Italian Social Movement. He was Minister of Transportations in the first Silvio Berlusconi cabinet. Fiori abandoned AN in 2005, dissenting with some lay-oriented moves of secretary Gianfranco Fini, and moved to Christian Democracy for Autonomies, of which he was named president. In July 2006, he was expelled by this movement with accuses of having organized an illegal national congress.

On 1 October 2006 Fiori founded the Rifondazione DC party, of which he was appointed national secretary. However, the new political subject did not have success, and allied with Clemente Mastella's UDEUR and Giuseppe Pizza's new Christian Democracy to form the "Federazione Democristiana". On 23 March 2010, Rifondazione DC merged with Francesco Rutelli's Alleanza per l'Italia.

References

• (Italian) Biography at official website