Former mayor of Milan Paolo Pillitteri died

Paolo Pillitteri, socialist mayor of Milan from 1986 to 1992 and former brother-in-law of Bettino Craxi, has died in Milan. The announcement was made by his son on social media. He would have been 84 years old today.

In addition to being mayor of Milan, Pillitteri served as a member of parliament and was a prominent member of the Italian Socialist Party in the 1980s and early 1990s. "Alas," his son wrote on social media, "I must announce to all those who loved him, and they are many, that my father Paolo has chosen the day of his 84th birthday to say goodbye forever.

Born in Sesto Calende, 5 December 1940, an important exponent of Bettino Craxi's Italian Socialist Party in the 1980s and early 1990s, Pillitteri served as Milan's first citizen from 1986 until 1 January 1992, succeeding his party colleague Carlo Tognoli; during his political career he was a Member of Parliament in the 9th legislature and in the 11th legislature. At the head of the city council, he had a political alliance with the Christian Democratic Party, which followed the coalition of the national Pentapartite party. In 1987, following disagreements with his main ally, he launched an unprecedented red-green junta with the Italian Communist Party and the Federation of Greens. In the municipal elections of 1990, he achieved significant personal success with the Italian Socialist Party accounting for 20% of the total votes in the city.

After being re-elected as a Member of Parliament in the 1992 political elections (the last of the so-called First Republic), in early May of the same year he received, together with his predecessor Carlo Tognoli, a notice of indictment for the offence of receiving stolen goods amounting to 500 million lire, as part of the 'Mani pulite' (Clean Hands) investigation. He was later definitively convicted of the offence of receiving stolen goods, with a sentence set at 2 years and 6 months by the Court of Appeal in 1996. Parallel to his 25-year political career within the party sectors of the Socialist Party, he also collaborated with several important socialist newspapers such as the 'Avanti!' and was also co-director of the newspaper 'L'Opinione delle libertà'. He was a lecturer in film history at the Free University of Languages and Communication and a prolific author of books and essays on cinema and political activity.

'We learn with great sorrow of the death of Paolo Pillitteri' and 'we are ready to take action for a public remembrance of the former mayor of Milan'. Thus on X the mayor of Milan, Beppe Sala, expressing also on behalf of the entire municipal administration 'our heartfelt closeness to the family'.