Loris Fortuna
Loris Fortuna | |
|---|---|
| Minister for the Coordination of Community Policies | |
| In office 31 July 1985 – 5 December 1985 | |
| Prime Minister | Bettino Craxi |
| Preceded by | Francesco Forte |
| Succeeded by | Fabio Fabbri |
| Minister for the Coordination of Civil Protection | |
| In office 1 December 1982 – 4 August 1983 | |
| Prime Minister | Amintore Fanfani |
| Preceded by | Giuseppe Zamberletti |
| Succeeded by | Vincenzo Scotti |
| Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| In office 16 May 1963 – 5 December 1985 | |
| Constituency | Udine |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 January 1924 Breno, Italy |
| Died | 5 December 1985 (aged 61) Rome, Italy |
| Party | PCI (1946–1956) PSI (1957–1985) |
| Other political affiliations | PR (1976–1985) |
| Alma mater | University of Bologna |
| Profession | Politician, lawyer, journalist |
Loris Fortuna (22 January 1924 – 5 December 1985) was an Italian politician who was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1963 to 1985 and is best known as an advocate of both civil rights and social rights, and for being among the main promoters of the laws that legalised and decriminalised divorce and abortion in Italy. Born in Breno but raised in Udine, Fortuna was a partisan and member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II. In April 1944, he was captured by the Nazis, tried by a Nazi German court in the Adriatic Coast, and sentenced to forced labour in the Bernau am Chiemsee penitentiary in Upper Bavaria, which he reached in December 1944, and from which he was freed after the war.
In 1946, Fortuna joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI), where he began his political career, working as a journalist by trade and graduating at the University of Bologna. He left the PCI for the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was suppressed by the Soviet Red Army, joining a minority but significant group of former PCI members who broke up with the party over the issue. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1963, he was re-elected five times and remained a member of the lower house of the Italian Parliament until 1985. He served as a minister in the fifth Fanfani government and in the first Craxi government, respectively as Minister for the Coordination of Civil Protection from 1982 to 1983 and Minister for the Coordination of Community Policies in 1985.
Fortuna promoted as first signer the divorce law in 1965 but then decided not to submit it to the examination of the Italian Parliament. In 1970, he decided to present his proposal of law, together with the Italian Liberal Party (PLI) deputy Antonio Baslini, gaining support from the PCI, the PSI, the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI), the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (PSIUP), the Italian Republican Party (PRI), and the PLI but opposed by Christian Democracy (DC), which was the ruling party of the First Italian Republic. The Radical Party (PR) and the League for the Institution of Divorce (LID) supported the law outside Parliament. The law, which legalised and regulated divorce in Italy, was then approved on 1 December 1970.
The law on divorce is known as the Fortuna–Baslini Law. The DC tried to repeal it via a national referendum but failed, as the 1974 Italian divorce referendum saw 59.3% of Italians voting in favour of the law on divorce. During the referendum campaign, Fortuna bound up with PR leader Marco Pannella and then joined his party while continuing to be member of the PSI. The support by the leftist parties, most notably the PCI, was instrumental in preserving the divorce law. Subsequently, Fortuna was a strong supporter and promoter for the abortion law, which was depenalised in 1978 and survived to the 1981 Italian referendum.