Biography of Agostino Depretis

Strategist of transformation

31 January 1813
29 July 1887
Agostino Depretis, lawyer and statesman, was born in Oltrepò pavese, the 31 January 1813 in Mezzana Corti. Convinced follower of Giuseppe Mazzini in 1848 he was elected Deputy and became the greatest exponent of the parliamentary left and avversando the policy of Cavour. Contrasts with the military intervention in Crimea. Subsequently revised their positions, aligns to Government and in 1859 received the appointment of Governor of Brescia.
The following year he was sent by Cavour in Sicily, such as uniting Italy in order to promote the annexation of southern Italy to the Kingdom of Sardinia; but his disagreements with Francesco Crispi induced him to renounce the mandate. On his return to Turin Daniels opposes, in line with the positions of Mazzini, the sale of Nice (which since 1388 had belonged to Piedmont) and Savoy to France by Napoleon III. After the death of Cavour is called to serve as Minister of public works in Urbano Rattazzi, in 1862 and first Minister of the Navy and finance in the second Cabinet Ricasoli, in 1866.
Dead Rattazzi, Agostino Depretis became leader of the left and you do find ready, in 1876, to the fall of the historic Right to form the first left-wing Government of the Kingdom of Italy and remaining referee of Italian politics for over eleven years, except for brief interruptions of the ministries. In 1882, supported by Marco Minghetti and Ruggero Bonghi, opens to the right, launching that behavior that would have characterized negatively Italian politics in the decades ahead--and still in vogue-called "trasformismo". With the new structure of Government implements land equalization railway conventions and adheres to the Triple Alliance. In 1887 back in his tracks by excluding from government representatives of right and calling it the ousted Zanardelli and Crispi. The latter will succeed him after his death in Stradella (Pavia) on 29 July 1887, at the age of 74 years.
Agostino Depretis is destined to remain a controversial historical figure because of its transformation: on the one hand there are those who defend acquitting and appreciating his choices for the sake of a political cynicism well summarized in the phrase "the ends justify the means" (whose attribution to Machiavelli appears dubious), but on the other there are those who think that politics should be above all "consistency" and that becomes so difficult to accept that a character to the left, who was head of the left and opened the first leftist Government of the realm, string repeated alliances with political adversaries whom Ricasoli, Minghetti, Cairoli, or dumb policy, once in power, as they did against France and the Church. In this sense, it was the harsh reprimand of Patriot Mazzini Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina against Daniels.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.