Giovanni Leone

Leone was born in Naples.

He graduated in law in 1929. His father was one of the founders of Democrazia Cristiana in his native city, and he was elected to the Italian Constituent Assembly in 1946. A member of the right wing faction of his party, he was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1948, being confirmed until 1963. In 1955-1963 he was also President of the Chamber, from which he resigned for a brief stint as Premier.

As prime minister, a law was passed in November 1968 that introduced a special benefit for full unemployment (trattamento integrativo di disoccupazione) for workers in the industrial sector, in cases of total or partial closing down of enterprises or large-scale dismissals, equalling two-thirds of previous monthly earnings for 180 days. The law also extended earnings replacement benefits to cases of sectoral crises or industrial restructuring with a new compensation formula equaling 80% of previous earnings for 3 months (9 months in exceptional circumstances), allowed for family allowances to be paid to those in receipt of unemployment benefits.^[1]

After having been unofficially several times candidate to the Presidency of the Republic, he was named Life Senator in 1967. In 1968 he was again Premier for some months. In 1971 he succeeded Giuseppe Saragat as President of Italy, being elected with votes of a right-centre majority of the Parliament (518 out of 996 votes, including those of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement).

He was forced to resign from his position following his involvement in the Lockheed bribery scandal^[2] on 15 June 1978.