Paolo Cirino Pomicino died

Former minister and leader of the Andreottian DC party Paolo Cirino Pomicino has died at the age of 87. He passed away in Rome at 4pm at the Quisisana clinic, where he had been hospitalised for a few days. He was nicknamed 'o Ministro', as between the 1980s and the early 1990s he was Minister of the Civil Service (1988-1989) in the De Mita government and Minister of Budget and Economic Planning (1989-1992) in the 6th and 7th Andreotti governments. He was part of the Andreottian current, referred to as the 'Primavera' current.

He was one of the last witnesses to the power of the Christian Democrats. A lover of life and superstitious like every Neapolitan, the fifth of seven children, a well-to-do family, Pomicino was born in Naples on 3 September 1939. 'We lived in a family of six boys, cheering for six different teams and identifying with six different parties, we were formed in the school of tolerance without differences ever affecting the deep fraternal relationship,' Cirino said of his brothers.

A Milan fan since childhood (a blasphemy for someone born under Vesuvius) with a passion for medicine and politics in his blood. Early in his career, Pomicino became an established doctor, specialising in nervous and mental illnesses, at his city's hospital, Cardarelli. In 1974, the meeting that changed his life, the one with Giulio Andreotti, who made him 'Viceroy of Naples' and a seasoned politician, getting him elected to Parliament. Twice minister (with the De Mita and Andreotti governments), seven times deputy: five times between 1976 and 1992, then again elected in the Second Republic.

With Tangentopoli and Operation Clean Hands he fell into disgrace. He underwent 42 trials. He came out with 40 acquittals and 2 convictions. The first to 1 year and 8 months for the so-called Enimont bribe of 5 billion lire turned over to the DC; the other to 2 months, for Eni slush funds. He only did 17 days at Poggioreale. Then, because of his bad heart (he had several bypasses) he was put under house arrest. "The bribes? The bribes? They were the price paid for the stabilisation of the country,' he justified himself. He then had a second chance with Silvio Berlusconi, after a brief phase with Clemente Mastella. Under the pseudonym 'Geronimo' he wrote successfully for 'Giornale' and 'Libero'. Rehabilitated, he had landed in the European Parliament in 2004, but preferred Rome. In 2006, the turning point: he managed to enter the Chamber of Deputies for the sixth time with the centre-right (the DC of his friend Gianfranco Rotondi) and then migrated to the centre. In 2008 he was not re-elected and two years later joined the Udc, becoming its leader. From 2008 to 2011 he also had a position at Palazzo Chigi alongside Silvio Berlusconi as chairman of the Technical and Scientific Committee for Strategic Control in State Administrations. He was also chairman of Tangenziale spa in Naples, a company of the Autostrade Group.

"On hearing the news of the passing of Paolo Cirino Pomicino, a leading figure in a long period of Italian politics, elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and fifteenth legislatures, a Member of the European Parliament from 2006 to 2008, and a minister several times, I would like to express my closeness to his family and my personal and the Senate of the Republic's heartfelt condolences," Ignazio La Russa, President of the Senate of the Republic, said in a statement.