Giuseppe Saracco

Infobox Prime Minister
name = Giuseppe Saracco

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order = 23rd
President of the Council of Ministers of Italy
monarch = Umberto I
Victor Emmanuel III
term_start = June 24, 1900
term_end = February 15, 1901
predecessor = Luigi Pelloux
successor = Giuseppe Zanardelli
birth_date = birth date|1821|10|6|mf=y
death_date = death date and age|1907|1|19|1821|10|6|mf=y
birth_place = Bistagno
death_place =
party = Democrat (Historical Left) / Liberal

Giuseppe Saracco (October 6, 1821 – January 19, 1907) was an Italian politician, financier and knight of the Annunziata.

Biography

Giuseppe Saracco was born at Bistagno (province of Alessandria).

After qualifying as an advocate, he entered the Piedmontese parliament in 1849. A supporter of Cavour until the latter's death he joined the party of Rattazzi and became under-secretary of state for public works in the Rattazzi cabinet of 1862. In 1864 he was appointed, by Sella, secretary-general of finance, and after being created senator in 1865, acquired considerable fame as a financial authority.

In 1879 he succeeded in postponing the total abolition of the grist tax, and was throughout a fierce opponent of Magliani's loose financial administration. Selected as minister of public works by Depretis in 1887, and by Crispi in 1893, he contrived to mitigate the worst consequences of Depretis's corruptly extravagant policy, and introduced a sounder system of government participation in public works.

In November 1898 he was elected president of the senate, and in June 1900 succeeded in forming a Cabinet of pacification after the Obstructionist crisis which had caused the downfall of General Pelloux. His term of office was clouded by the assassination of King Humbert (July 29, 1900), and his administration was brought to an end in February 1901 by a vote of the chamber condemning his weak attitude towards a great dock strike at Genoa.

After his fall he resumed his functions as president of the senate; but on the advent of the third Giolitti cabinet, he was not reappointed to that position. He received the supreme honour of the knighthood of the Annunziata from King Humbert in 1898.

References

*1911